Tee's Choice
by Seahorse8
Summary: Tee has always wanted to keep a diary, and now, due to a turn of events, she suddenly has the time, and a story to tell, of her school, life at the dumping ground, her friends, enemies and what happened when her school life and her home life suddenly came together, leading to disaster for Tee as she discovered that the smallest actions could ruin everything.
1. Tee's Choice

I've been trying to write a diary for years, but I always seemed to give up before I got anywhere. I don't know, I've always had way too much to do, but nothing to say. And I'm the sort of person who gets started on about a billion crazy projects and gets bored in five seconds.

Only now I've got all the time in the world. And everything to say. If I tell my story, maybe at least I'll get one good thing out of everything that happened.

Where shall we start? How about the summer holidays. Or, no, a few weeks later when the story really started. Because though most stuff happens to us at the weekend and in the holidays, stuff happens at school too.

**Friday**

School was always weird, being in care. Although Carmen was in year nine, like me, she was in a different form. It's strange, what things are like at school. It's like, we're all in different friendship groups, and there, we mostly hang out with people in our form. So Carmen and Lily never had much to do with me there. Bailey's in my form, which is sort of weird, cos it means he's the person from the dumping ground I see most. Jody and the little kids are still at primary school, and Tyler's in the year below me. And everyone else is older, so they look down at me when I'm at school. But in a way, it's like everyone from the dumping ground is linked, too, because we're all care kids. And some people are kind of weird about that. I'm unlucky enough to be in the same class as the school bully, this guy called Thomas Fletcher who no one likes, and he's always making stupid comments, but luckily he gives Bailey more hassle than me. I guess it's cos Bailey's a boy, which I know is sexist but is definitely the case, and it's also because Bailey gets angry a lot more easily than me. And I've had years practice at handling people like Thomas Fletcher. He doesn't really know how to wind me up very well.

I haven't got a best friend in my class. There's these two girls I hang out with a lot, though. I get on best with Cally. She's really creative, and great at winding up the teachers. It's almost like she's above them, and she knows how to get away with almost anything. Her best friend is a really pretty girl called Ruby, who all the boys are into, including Bailey! Ruby's lovely, but I don't think I have as much in common with her as with Cally, though she's a lot nicer. Sometimes Cally can be a bit weird about me being in care, and she doesn't like coming home with me after school. Ruby's a lot nicer that way. I've got other friends too, but I don't get on with them as well. Becky and Melanie are the sort of people I chat to, but wouldn't tell things to, like if someone was thinking about fostering me and Johnny. And then there's Jenny, who went to my primary school, and who I go to netball club with.

So anyway, that day, the day everything began, we were all having breakfast in our school uniforms. Carmen was texting Lily (again) and everyone else was fighting, and I was worried there'd be a food fight and I'd have to go to school covered in bits of cornflakes, which would be mortifying, and not just cos of Thomas Fletcher and Cally. But because everyone would see that all the care kids had been having a food fight, and you know, just automatically group us. I hate that!

Thank goodness we don't have to go to school by minibus. That would be too embarrassing, though I'd never dare to say so, and none of my friends would ever want to come to my place after school. Not that it is my place. No, we take a normal bus. I met up with Cally but she was sitting with Ruby so I sat next to Carmen instead. That's another thing. It's sort of like Carmen's my sister when we're at school, so sitting with her is kind of like sitting with Johnny. It's complicated. But what choice did I have?

Anyway, to be honest I don't particularly like school. I mean, it can be fun, and some of the subjects are all right, but when it's like you have a label saying "Care kid! Approach at your own risk!" it isn't always fun. But I caught up with Cally in the classroom and got ready for the day.

* * *

"I'm so glad it's almost the summer holidays," I said to her. "I don't think I could stomach much more of Mrs Harrison teaching maths..."

"Trying to," Cally corrected me. "We're always asleep by the time she's got Thomas and Matt to shut up. And no one listens to what she says, anyway."

"I know," I agreed. "I hope we get a better teacher next year. I don't really want to fail my maths exam when the time comes."

It was only when I saw the look of disbelief Cally was giving me that I realised how geeky that sounded. Cally doesn't understand anyone being even remotely interested in school.

"I wonder what how Jody will find this school," I said, changing the subject quickly."

"Oh yeah," said Cally. "She's got her induction day next week, hasn't she?"

"That's right." I paused. "I hope she doesn't get picked on too much. You know, for being in care."

"Well, from what I've heard about her, I don't think Jody's the type of person who'd get bullied," Cally comforted me. "She'll be fine, you'll see."

"I hope so."

"Quiet, please!" said my teacher, and we shut up.

It was later that day that everything kicked off. There are some days which just seem to be destined to be life-changing. Or where everything goes wrong. Like the day I got a letter from my mum, who I hadn't heard from since I was five. Or for Carmen, the day she heard that Lily was moving away, and got arrested... well, some days are just big. I've had more dramatic days than the one I'm talking about, but two very significant things did happen, which sparked things off later. The first thing didn't seem that big at first, but small things can grow in time.

* * *

It was at morning break. Carmen and I were sitting on some bench in the playground, looking through one of her magazines (which was all we could think of to do). It was a seriously hot day, and I was really too lazy to do anything but gaze around, and there was nothing to gaze at but Thomas Fletcher and Matt McDonald acting like they were special. All I was thinking about was summer hairstyles and holidays. I had seriously had enough of that year, with everything happening at home, not to mention school, and summer is my favourite time of year. It's like all the regular routines are dropped and the possibilities are endless. Like when I was eleven and ruined everyone's holiday by accidentally letting out a load of sheep. Somehow, I managed to get everyone an even better holiday. I still think it was a miracle.

"No way." Carmen broke into my thoughts. "Thomas Fletcher is an idiot, sure, but this is too much. He is going to get caught."

"What's he doing, smoking or something?" I muttered, bored.

"Taking money from little kids." Carmen said. "He is crazy."

"Maybe they owed it to him."

"Um, no. I think he's just threatening them. I didn't think that really happened."

I looked up. What he was doing did seem like classic bullying. I'd never seen anything like it.

I'm not usually the type of person to step in with things like that. Maybe it was because I'd been thinking back to when I ruined that holiday, and how hurt I felt when everyone blanked me. Or maybe it was how similar that kid whose schoolbag they were turning upside down looked to Mo. But suddenly I was over there.

"Can't you think of anything better?" I said. Thomas turned round, and stared at me.

"You what?" he said, in a surprised and slightly amused tone. That's when I realised what I was doing. What was I thinking? I wondered, panicking. But it was too late to back out now. I had to think of something clever, and quick, in order to keep my dignity.

"Don't you have any imagination?" I said, trying not to stammer. (Yes, I know, not at all clever and just typical creative-person-insult, but as you can probably tell, I'm not good at the spur of the moment.) I continued. "There's loads of ways of making money without having to bully people."

"But Tee," Fletcher said, with a smirk. "We can't be bothered selling cupcakes or doing paper rounds. This is much more practical."

"But it's bullying," I persisted.

"Bullying happens. It's life. Get used to it. We're just giving David here-" he pointed to the year seven - "A bit of experience. So he knows what to expect later in life."

"Well, he wouldn't have to learn if there weren't yobbos like you about," I fumed. I don't know, what he was saying was so ridiculous that I just sort of abandoned all attempt at saying anything clever.

"Well, we're here," said Thomas. "Now go away and let us do our work."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Because it looks like David's not the only person who needs life experience."

"Well, that's true. Hows about I give you some?" I said. I'm not sure why, it just sounded strong.

"_You_? Since when have you turned into superman? Carmen maybe, but you just twitter behind her and bake cakes. I suggest we both stick to what we're good at." I realised he had a point. And I was surprised at myself, too. But like I said, for me in summer, anything is possible.

"People do change. And I think it's high time I did." I said defiantly.

"Look, I'm not looking for a fight. How about you go back to your orphan friends and buy some more sheep."

That hit me. It always stung when someone referred to me being in care like that. And how did he even know about the sheep thing?"

"I'm not an orphan," I said quietly. "I've got a mum."

"Who doesn't want you." he taunted. I heard Carmen dashing off behind me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded, though I was determined now not to take the bait. Not to be like my brother. I realized now that despite what Thomas had said, he was looking for a fight, an easy victory. And there was no way I was giving him that. I'd get him later.

"Even if I was bullying," I said, plotting now. "I wouldn't go for the classic kind. Where's the honour there? I can think of much better."

"Well, who says I can't?" Thomas demanded. Which, seemed at that moment so ridiculous I just wanted to laugh. I mean, he is like the biggest ape ever. So I laughed.

"Let's settle this." Thomas said. "This is war, right? Then we'll see who the idiot is."

My heart pounded in that way it does when I'm either fantasizing about some boy I'm into, or really, really nervous, scared or shocked. But I welcomed the feeling. It was time for change, adventure. Being me. And this seemed to be the first step to getting it.

But at that moment, Johnny ran up, followed by Rick, Carmen, and a bunch of his geeky mates.

"Leave my sister alone!" he fumed at Thomas.

"Johnny!" I shouted. After a rush of relief, all I felt was annoyed. Like I couldn't even handle that ape alone.

"Or what?" Thomas was yelling back. "What is this, reject kids to the rescue?"

My brother grabbed him, and suddenly they were fighting.

"Stop it!" I yelled. Now Carmen, Tyler, Faith and Rick and the others were pulling them apart, and I could sense other kids gathering. I begged them to stop, horrified at what I'd started.

"JOHNNY, LEAVE IT!" I screamed, losing it. My brother stopped for a moment. In that moment, Thomas glanced at me, questioningly, his eyes glinting dangerously. I held his gaze, determined to win this time. And gave the tiniest nod.

Thomas looked back, satisfied, geared up. Then he gave Johnny one last shove, and walked away, Matt close behind.

"Tee, you idiot!" Johnny said angrily when he'd gone.

"ME?!" I demanded. "Why did you have to jump in? I was handling it!"

"Yeah right! It's lucky Carmen went and got me when she did!"

We trudged off, arguing. "You could have helped, Bailey!" Carmen said as we passed him where he'd been standing watching, bouncing a football up and down.

"Well, it's obvious she didn't want everyone to!" Bailey retorted, giving Johnny a look.

"Or you were just scared," Carmen said scornfully. "Where are the teachers when we need them, anyway?"

But I thought about what Bailey had said a few times that day.


	2. Reaction

"She did what?!" Cally said in disbelief that lunch time, when Carmen was filling her and Ruby in on what had happened at break, despite my protests.

"You've done it now, Tee," she continued. "You deserve anything you get."

"Oh, come on, Cal!" Ruby argued. "Tee was only trying to help."

"Yeah, but Fletcher's a moron! There's people about like that about, always have been Get used to it."

"Yeah, well there shouldn't be." I objected, suddenly flared up again. "And I don't see why we should sit back and let them ruin people's lives."

"But now he'll be out to get _you_," Carmen said. "And, face it, he'll tear you to pieces."

"No," I corrected her. "I'll tear _him_ to pieces."

"Just be careful," Ruby said.

"Yeah," said Cally. "No offence, but I've got better things to do than get mixed up in this. You made the choice, not me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

"Unless you grow up, forget about hanging out with me." she shrugged.

I couldn't believe it. I felt a pang of hurt, but it was soon replaced by anger, so much easier to take, and easily fired up by the mood I was in that day. I

"Wait, me?" I stormed. I was fed up of sucking up to her, wanting to be her best friend. "Me grow up? You don't know what growing up is, Cally Robinson. You seem to think it's all about breaking every rule in school, hurting your family. At least you have a family to hurt. And I'm not the one who thinks the way to prove themselves is to turn in to some kind of crazy rebel the moment you turn fourteen."

The moment I stopped, and saw Cally's face and the shocked looks Carmen and Ruby were giving me, I realized I'd gone too far. I'd never spoken out like this before, and it felt scary, uncertain. Like I'd uncovered one part of myself too many. And there I was, exposed. I'd felt powerful before, but now my energy was used up, I was horrified. I mean, hurting my friend like that? I'd thought change was good, but I wasn't sure I liked who I was turning into.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said, backtracking quickly. "I didn't mean all that."

"Yes you did," Cally said quietly.

"It's just," I said, thinking, "You've really changed this year."

Only she wasn't the only one who had.


	3. Is this a joke?

Things were awkward between me and Cally for the rest of the day. Ruby and Carmen gave us wary glances, and even my other friends could tell something was wrong. I somehow managed to get through the day, ignoring the evil looks Thomas and Matt were giving me, but by the end of the day I was tired of everything and just wanted some time to myself.

Only that's the problem with being care; there's no such thing as privacy. Soon Carmen came knocking at my room.

"So, what's the deal with you and Thomas?" she demanded, flopping onto my sofa. "I could tell there was more to it than I saw."

"Carmen, go away." I said, annoyed and tired. "There wasn't, and anyway, why would I tell you?"

"Um, cos you're my best friend?"

That did it. "No, I'm not your best friend. Lily's your best friend, and because she's gone, somehow you automatically assume I'll replace her. Well, you know what, Carmen? I'm fed up of being second best. And you can't keep secrets anyway."

But my words seemed to skim over Carmen. "Okay, fine," she said. "What is up with you today?"

"Nothing, just leave me alone." I stood up and held open my door pointedly. You can't even walk out if it's your own room. Finally she left.

I got out my iPad, which had been a present for my fourteenth birthday (I guess Mike had figured I'd like one after the time I stole Jody's), and started being creative. I felt really shaken up after that day, and it always calms me down. I searched for images of clothes, thinking I'd go vintage, and soon I was engrossed with sketching ideas for a new outfit. It didn't last long though. Just as I was about to get out my sewing machine, there was another knock at my door.

"Tee?" Jody called. She peered in, then went over. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, just... designing stuff. Nothing much," I muttered.

"I heard you got in a fight with bully." she commented.

"Not quite true..."

"Carmen said you did," Jody persisted. "She said he was bullying you."

"Did she now." I felt another twinge of annoyance at Carmen. She really couldn't keep secrets. "It was Johnny who got into a fight," I said. "And Thomas Fletcher only picks on little kids."

Then I saw the look on Jody's face and realised what I'd said.

"I'm sure_ you'll_ be fine," I said quickly, but she didn't look convinced. I cursed myself.

"Jody, you're not the type to get bullied. And there aren't any bullies anyway. It's not like you hear about in books, with people getting their heads stuck down the toilets. That doesn't happen."

"There is one bully, though, right?" she said. And if I'd had doubts about fighting Thomas Fletcher before, now they were gone. I was flared up again, determined to make things better for the future year sevens, like Jody, and later, Mo. To make sure the myths about high school stayed myths.

"Jody, listen to me," I said now. "That's why I challenged Fletcher. To stop him getting out of hand. And if I ever see him bullying anyone, I'll get him so bad he won't lay a finger on anyone again."

"Right..." Jody said, looking slightly bemused at my outburst. My fifth or something that day.

"What was it you wanted, anyway?" I said.

"Oh, yeah, that. Mike wanted to see you."

"Right." I went downstairs, slightly worried about what he might want. I hoped he hadn't heard about the fighting.

* * *

"What?" I demanded, reading the letter. "Is this a joke?" Though I knew it wasn't.

Me and Johnny were in Mike's office, and if I'd worried about Thomas Fletcher, this was on a whole different scale.

"Tee, calm down," Johnny urged.

"Calm down? Calm down? Johnny, our mum's gone and got herself a new boyfriend. After everything she said!" I still couldn't believe it. I'd trusted her, let her back into her life, and now this! I could tell that the reason Johnny wasn't as upset as me was because he'd been sensible. He'd never trusted her from the start. But I had.

"How could she do this?" I shouted. "How could she do this to Hope? How could she put another child through what she did us?"

Johnny shook his head. "Tee, she's a lousy parent...but it might not be the same..."

"People shouldn't be allowed to do this!" I yelled. "Life shouldn't let bullies do these things! It's not fair!"

I brushed past Mike, ran out of the office, slamming the door behind me, tears streaming down my face. Though I could hear Johnny calling me back, I ignored him, and carried on walking. I had to get away. Not to my room, where someone could reach me. I had to be alone. I ran out of the door, trying to find somewhere private, wishing I was still at Elm Tree house, where there was always somewhere, where my mum was out of my life, unable to hurt me. Wishing I was still young and happy, felt content tagging along with Lily and Carmen, keeping my head down, and the only thing that concerned me was sheep. But now I'd lost the sheep in me, and had to make my own decisions. And I always seemed to make the wrong ones.

Then I thought of the garage. I crept in, found a dark corner, and sat down and cried. Cried like I hadn't been able to since I was young, alone and uninterrupted, relieving myself of the pain for a while, thinking of times long ago, when I was five and still living the nightmare that had got me here.

Even after I'd cried myself out I stayed there, unable to face wary and accusing looks. I knew Carmen would have told everyone everything now, and I couldn't face them. Like I said before, it's weird how some days can be so dramatic, can change everything. And when it springs on you unprepared, it's worse.

After a while, I felt the door open. I huddled closer in the corner, hoping I wouldn't be seen but knowing they'd find me anyway.

"Tee? Is that you?" called someone. Kazima. Well, at least it wasn't Johnny, Jody or Carmen. I stood up, ready to leave, put she stopped me.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"I thought you'd have heard by now," I muttered.

"I have heard quite a lot, but I'm sure not much of it is the truth," she laughed ruefully. "Sometimes it helps to talk, to know."

So I told her. It was good to talk to an outsider, someone who wouldn't act differently because of it, who didn't know me so well. She was quiet as I poured it all out, till I'd told her it all.

"Sometimes, bad things happen." she said then. "There are bad people about. And life isn't always fair. But, Tee, it's best to face things. I think what you are doing is right. But you should speak to your mum. She told you she loves Hope, so if she has a new boyfriend, he might not be so bad."

"You don't know what she's like," I protested. "She changes when she's in love..."

"And yet she left her last boyfriend for Hope," said Kazima. "She may have changed. I'm not saying you should rely on her, or trust her, but listen to what she has to say. It may not be too bad."

"I suppose..." I said, feeling slightly better.

"And don't listen to Carmen," Kazima continued. "She is all mouth, and nobody believes what she says. Go back to the others, they care about you. You have so many friends. I wish I was as popular as you."

"I'm not that popular."

"But everyone thinks they are your special friend. And they're right. You're luckier than you think."

For some reason, hearing this made me feel guilty. "You're popular too," I told her. "And you've been a great friend to me."

Kazima smiled then. "Come on," she said. "Let's go back to the house."


	4. Personal questions and outrageous advice

**Weekend**

After that, I did feel a lot better, but I couldn't help still thinking of my mum, and whenever I did that stab of hurt would come back. My brother tried to help, but he seemed to make things worse, since he hadn't trusted mum from the start. Though it was now the weekend, which meant a break, I don't think I enjoyed it much. I spent most of it hanging out with Kazima, the only person I felt I could really talk to, or sitting in my room watching old TV shows on YouTube. Somehow, I didn't really feel like sewing or anything either; after all, that's what I'd been doing just before it happened. And I avoided my friends from school, especially Carmen. Which I could tell she wasn't happy about, but that's the way it was.

"Why is it you're friends with her?" Kazima asked me once.

"I always have been," I said, confused. "I mean, she's my age, a great friend, and we're both interested in fashion. Why wouldn't we be friends?"

"You're interested in fashion?" asked Kaz. "You don't seem like that sort of person, somehow. You always seem to be too busy to be worrying about your looks."

"Well, yeah," I admitted. "How it is, is I like creating clothes and jewellery, Carmen likes wearing them. She knows what looks good, so we always have plenty to talk about. And I think we've grown more similar over the years."

"Right," Kazima said. "But what I really meant before, is why is Carmen always in the centre? And why are you always trailing after her?"

That stopped me in my tracks. I'd never met anyone quite like Kazima, who could tell things about people the way she did, and wasn't afraid to say them. I'd always admired that in her, like the way she saw through Frank's disabilities and gambling, and saw the great person I knew he was. And how she was so wise. But hearing this, I wasn't sure any more.

She was still looking at me, waiting for an answer.

"Well," I stammered. "I suppose it's because she's, you know, slightly older than me, prettier. And… more… assertive?" I really didn't know what to say. But suddenly I could see why she'd clashed with Carmen. I'd been distracted by my mum coming back while Kazima joined the dumping ground, but I'd known something had gone wrong. And now I remembered the thing about Carmen. For her, the world was black and white. There were two sorts of people; those who were into fashion, and those who weren't. The second group just went below the radar, like needy people she had to help out. But Kazima was on a whole different level. She was wiser, knew what life really meant. And Carmen obviously didn't know how to deal with people like that. So when she couldn't make Kazima one of her charity works, things hadn't worked out.

Thinking this, I wondered what I was to Carmen. In further answer to Kazima's question, I told her about Lily, and how she used to be Carmen's best friend.

"So," I concluded, "I suppose I was second best from the start."

Kazima nodded. "But I think it's like this," she said. "She is like the model, you are the designer. She is in the spotlight, you're the one who put her there."

I was shocked again, but before I had a chance to think about what she'd said, my door opened once again. We both looked up, to see Bailey.

"What do you want?" I demanded, surprised and hoping he wasn't about to annoy my brother, like he always did.

"I just wanted to say, I think you should keep out of Thomas Fletcher's way." He said.

"What?" I demanded. Who was Bailey to tell me this?

"He can get nasty." Bailey continued. "And you might think you can handle him, but he's worse than he seems. Seriously, leave him."

For some reason, him saying this annoyed me more than anyone else. Maybe it was the way he'd not done anything before when I was fighting Thomas. I'd thought he'd understood me, but he obviously had just been scared.

"I can't believe you!" I said now. "You just stood there while Johnny was fighting. So how would you know? I can't believe you think I can't handle him too, now!"

I walked out this time, not caring that it was my room, went downstairs and switched the TV on. Bailey really was mental. And I felt even worse now. Like I had time to think about school anyway when my mum had just ruined my baby sister's future. I made up my mind just to try to forget about everything.

When Floss, Harry and Mo came in I really was annoyed.

"Go away, you lot!" I snapped as they tried to join me on the sofa. They all looked surprised and hurt.

"We only want to watch "Mary Poppins"," said Floss in a small voice. "So Harry could show us what Tracy Beaker used to be like."

"Are you all right, Tee?" asked Mo, sounding worried. And suddenly I felt awful.

"Go on, then, watch," I said, getting up. "And Tracy wasn't quite like Mary Poppins, but she did used to get up to some crazy stuff."

"Why don't you help me sort out my treasure," said Mo. "That might make you feel better."

When I actually found myself agreeing, I realized just how bad things were.


	5. Another Day

**Monday**

On Monday, the day started the same as always, with Jody and Tyler causing mischief at the breakfast table, Floss and Grace bickering, and everyone making a lot of noise and mess. Only today, I was ignoring Bailey, and avoiding Carmen, though she kept trying to talk to me. I'd ignored Johnny that whole weekend, and now he'd gone away to some survival camp for the week, leaving me feeling even more alone. I sat next to Kazima and tried to think about anything other than my mum.

"Tee," Mike called. "Can I have a word with you for a minute?" I followed him to the office, already dreading what he'd have to say.

"Look, Tee, I know you were upset by that letter you got from your mum," he said. "And the reason I didn't really speak to you about it before was because I thought it would be best to give you time to get your head around it. But she does really want to see you again."

"Well, maybe I don't want to see her, either," I shrugged. "Look, what does my brother say?"

"He's worried about Hope, like you, but he wants to hear your mother out. And I think you should, too. But don't worry, I'm not going to force you into anything."

"Good," I said tightly. "I've got to go, or I'll be late for school."

I went off to catch up with everyone, determined not to see my mum, and to ignore Johnny. There was no way he knew what was best for me.

It was only when we got to the bus stop that I remembered everything that had happened on Friday. I'd been so caught up with the more serious stuff that I'd almost forgotten the Thomas Fletcher business. But obviously, the school hadn't.

Because as Carmen, Faith, Kazima, Bailey, Rick, Tyler and I walked up, all the other kids from our school turned quiet. Like they'd been talking about us. The way they were acting was subtle, just looks and whispers, but still I could tell things have changed. It was clearly the dumping ground kids against everyone else.

"Can I sit with you on the bus?" I asked Kazima quietly. "I don't think I'm welcome anywhere else."

She nodded, so I sat with her a few seats away from Carmen, Ruby and the others. Though Carmen had basically ignored me for the whole weekend, now she kept glancing at me, and somehow I didn't think she particularly liked the idea of me hanging out with Kazima, either.

Sure enough, she caught up with me as soon as we got off the bus.

"What's up with you?" she asked. "First you're getting into fights, now you and Kazima are suddenly best buddies. I mean, why Kazima out of everyone?"

I shook my head, shocked. "you're the one who's spreading rumors about me. And what is wrong with Kazima?"

"I don't know... she's just... well, I didn't think she'd be your type."

"So who is my type?" I demanded. "How would you know-"

But I didn't finish my sentence. Because at that moment, we reached the school. I stood frozen, staring at it. The message spray painted on the wall, and the can I was using for art lying, empty, next to it with my name still written on it in block capitals. Thomas Fletcher grinning nearby, and everyone else at the school staring at me in disgust.

And on the wall, written in large, royal blue letters:

CALLY ROBINSON IS A BITCH.


	6. Is Tee guilty?

"It wasn't me!" I said. I was in the head teacher's office, somewhere I hadn't been since the last time I changed schools, which was when I was nine. I still couldn't believe I was here now.

"I am surprised at you, Tee," said Mrs Dormer. "And I don't understand why you'd want to vandalise the school, or hurt your friend like that. But that was your spray can, yes? Or is there another Tee in this school?"

"It is my can," I admitted. "But I was using it for my art project. I don't do graffiti."

"It doesn't seem like you," Mrs Dormer said. "But when I questioned Caroline Robinson on the matter, she did tell me you'd had an argument on Friday. Now, I've spoken to your... carers." she said "carers" like it was something to be ashamed of. "And I hear you've had a few problems, with your actual mother. Is this why you did it?"

"I told you, it wasn't me!" I persisted. "I just saw it this morning!"

"Now, the paint is dry, which suggests you went into the school at the weekend to do it. And Mike told me you went missing on Friday, after hearing the news about your mother."

"I didn't, honest!" I said again, trying to remember what I'd been doing on friday."I was in the garage. I needed some time on my own."

Then I thought of something. "Kazima was with me!" I said. "She'll tell you. Or anyway, she joined me after half an hour or something."

"Kazima?" Mrs Dormer asked.

"From my care home. She's in year ten. Go on, ask her!"

I waited as Mrs Dormer sent the secretary to fetch Kaz, watching me in case I tried to text her to ask her to cover for me. Then she went outside to speak to her, and came back a few minutes later.

"It appears your stories match up," she said, sounding slightly disappointed. "Since you have always behaved yourself before, I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt this time."

"Thanks, Mrs Dormer!" I said, relieved.

"But," she continued. "I will expect you to come back on Thursday to clean up the graffiti."

"What?" I gasped, outraged. "It wasn't me! I thought you were going to let me off. And I thought the school closed tomorrow. It's being used for the elections?"

Mrs Dormer nodded. "Exactly. So I don't want the school defaced by vulgar language concerning pupils at this school. Just remember I am letting you off lightly."

"Right, Mrs Dormer," I said meekly.

"And any more behaviour like this will result in your immediate exclusion." she said. "Now, go back to class."

I left, wanting to argue but knowing it would be useless.


	7. Who's side are you on?

I was dreading morning break after that, and facing the others, but I thought I'd better speak to them sooner rather than later, so I could tell them my side of the story. I hadn't spoken to any of them in classes before; everyone had pretty much ignored me. But now I went over to where my friends were sitting.

"Cally, you know it wasn't me, right?" I asked. She just looked back at me. "Look, it really wasn't! I swear!" I cried. "Mrs Dormer let me off. And I'd never do anything like that."

"Just go, Tee," sighed Melanie. "You've done enough damage already."

"Don't any of you believe me?" I said desperately. I was hurt that none of them thought highly enough of me to take my word.

"I believe you," said Jenny. "Look, girls, do you really think Tee would do something like that?"

I breathed a sigh of relief as Becky and Ruby slowly shook their heads. But Melanie and Cally, the two most strong-willed of my friends, were still giving me dirty looks.

"Carmen?" I asked quietly, hardly daring to. She was my very best friend, no matter how left out she sometimes made me feel or how much she gossiped. More than that, she was family. She had to believe me.

But now she shrugged sadly.

"Look, Tee…" she muttered. "I don't know what to think anymore. You've really changed recently. And you did go missing on Friday."

"I was with Kazima, I told you!" I said desperately. But Carmen just looked uncomfortable.

"Fine, then!" I stormed. "Be like that!" I walked off, trying not to cry.

"Tee!" Jenny called after me. I turned round warily. "Don't worry about Carmen and Cally. They'll come round eventually." She looked at me sadly. "Look, I'm really sorry about what's happened."

"That's ok," I muttered. "It's not that that's really bothering me." Too late, I realised what I'd said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Ruby gently.

"Not really." I went and sat down, wanting some peace, but soon Jenny was next to me.

"So, have you got a plan yet?" she asked.

"What for?"

"To get back a Thomas Fletcher. For stitching you up?" I shook my head.

"Look, Jen, I'm not really in the mood…"

"So you want him to win, do you?"

"Well, no…" I admitted. "But I really can't think of anything. And I don't really think…"

"Okay, okay!" Jenny sighed. "But if you change your mind, I do have an idea."

I shook my head, and she walked off.

"Something has happened, hasn't it?" said Ruby.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, on Friday you were raring to go, challenging Thomas, and now it's the last thing on your mind." She said, matter-of-factly.

"Yes, actually. It's my mum. She's got a new boyfriend… I'm surprised Carmen hasn't told you already."

"She's as bad as you think, you know," said Ruby. "Not if it's serious. I actually think she might be able to help you."

"I don't think so. She wouldn't understand…"

"I think she would," insisted Ruby. "Her mum let her down over a new boyfriend, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose," I said, reluctantly. "But she didn't have siblings to worry about."

"Talk to Lily, then."

"Maybe," I muttered. Then I said, "I wish Johnny was here."

"I know," said Ruby gently. "But I wouldn't worry about Thomas Fletcher. He's only trying to get you to fight him again."

"How do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Didn't you see?" I shook my head.

"It doesn't matter," said Ruby.

"Yes it does. What's he doing? Tell me." I demanded, worried now.

"Well… he's giving Tyler hassle. Or he was a few minutes ago."

"WHAT?" I cried. "Where?" As Ruby pointed, I ran over. No matter how low I felt, if it was about someone from the dumping ground, I'd help.


	8. Girl Power

"Tee, I don't think you should go-" Ruby started, but I wasn't listening. I raced across to where Thomas stood, facing Tyler. Bailey and Rick were there too, as well as a crowd of all their mates, and though all they were doing was shouting at each other and giving each other the occasional shove, it looked like trouble. _That's it, _I thought, and pushed my way forward.

"What's going on?" I started. They all looked at me. Then Bailey stood up.

"Tee, what are you doing?" he said. "Aren't you in enough trouble?"

I ignored him and turned to Tyler and Rick. "What's going on?" I demanded, though I could tell from their faces it wasn't good.

"None of your business!" Matt said, giving me a shove. I shoved him back, then turned to Thomas.

"So, you're at it again?" I said, trying to sound more confidant than I felt. "Typical. You do something effective, but all too soon you're back to your old tricks. But then you're not used to people like me, are you."

"How do you mean?" he said, looking confused.

"Well," I said, getting into the flow now. "You're always getting into fights. You tease people, provoke them... but you've never gone near a girl before. Except for weak year sevens who make easy targets, of course. And I don't think you have the ability too. Why? Because, of course, being beaten by a _girl _would be so humiliating for you. So you target boys instead. I thought it was me you'd declared war with."

"Don't flatter yourself, Tee," Thomas sneered. "This has nothing to do with you. Tyler was acting like a loony. So I told him it must run in his family. With his mum being mental and all."

Rick stepped forward, looking angry, but Thomas didn't appear to notice.

"I was just worried that Tyler would end up like her," he continued. "I mean, we wouldn't want a mental case at this school. It might be catching. I was just making sure we were safe. It's got nothing to do with you. Though, saying that, we should probably stay away from you, too. In case you end up a slag like your mum."

"Leave Tee's mum out of this!" Ruby burst out at that moment. "I can't believe you'd be mean enough to bring her into this now that -"_  
_

"Tee, this isn't your fight, all right?" interrupted Bailey. "We've got this." I scowled at him, then turned back to Thomas, shaking.

"Next time, if you've got a problem, a problem with _anyone,_ come to **me**," I said. "Or I'll sort you out. Just you wait. And, for your information, I don't need my brother or any of the _boys_ to fight my battles. This is war, me against you. Nothing else. Let's see how you cope with a girl."

Then I looked around. There was quite a crowd,. "Now apologise to Tyler," I told Thomas.

"Or what?" he demanded.

"Well, then we'll really see which of us would win in a fight. You wouldn't have much of a reputation left then, right? But me, I've got nothing left to lose,and plenty of practise from fighting my mum's boyfriends. And winning."

This wasn't strictly true, but he didn't question it. "Sorry," he spat at Tyler. I grinned, satisfied. "And, of course, if you go near any of my friends again, I'll do more than talk."

It was a thin victory, one I wouldn't be able to rely on for long, and I had a feeling there was more to come. But I was confident, because now I knew what I had to do. In my head, I'd started plotting again. I walked off, not happy, but satisfied.

Then Bailey came up to me.

"Are you crazy?" he demanded. "What were you thinking? He'll be out to get you now."

"I think I can survive," I said firmly, angry again that he questioned me.

"You don't know how dangerous he can be!" he insisted. "He's not just some comical idiot you can push around."

Something in his tone threw me. "Did he do something to you?" I asked, my heart pounding.

"Look," Bailey said. "He nearly found out about your mum just then. And if he did... he could really make your life 's the last thing you need right now."

"How would you know?" I yelled at him, suddenly angry. "How would you know what I need? How I feel? You couldn't possibly. Just because your dad never wanted you, you think it gives you a right to treat people like dirt. Just get a life, and stop messing with mine, then maybe one day you'll find someone who doesn't reject you like everyone who's ever known you has done so far. Then maybe you'll know what it's like to have friends. Because at the moment, you and Thomas Fletcher could be twins."

I kept on and on, unable to stop until I'd said it. Then I realised I'd gone too far. _Way _too far. And I saw Bailey's face and my heart stopped. How could I have hurt someone like that? What had I done?

I should have apologised. But I found myself walking away from him and over to Jenny.

"Right," I said. "What's your plan to get back at Thomas?"


	9. The staircase

"So, what's the plan?" I asked Jenny. It was the end of lunch time, and we were in the cloakroom, avoiding being in the crowded, wet playground. And I was trying to avoid everyone until we'd sorted things out.

"Not here," Jenny whispered, giggling. "Look, I'll tell you later. just leave stage one to me, and we can meet up after school to put the rest of it into action."

"Right," I said,slightly annoyed that she wouldn't tell me, but really too excited. The way things were going, I didn't really care what happened. I just wanted to have some fun and get my own back.

"I'll tell you one thing, though," Jenny giggled. "It's going to epic! By the time we're done, Thomas Fletcher won't be able to face anyone in the school without being humiliated."

"Sounds good!" I said. "So what do I do?"

"Well, try to think of Thomas Fletcher's weaknesses. And Matt McDonald, and anyone else you don't like."

"Okay," I said. "Well, where do I start? They're both pretty dumb, I don't think Thomas has any other friends except Matt... Oh, their reputation. It's what they rely on. And everyone expects them to be mean."

"Sounds promising," grinned Jenny. "I think that's almost enough ammunition for my plan. Oh yeah, but you know what? Thomas fancies Ruby. Like, a _lot._"

"He does?!" I spluttered. _That_ I hadn't been expecting.

"Yup." Jenny nodded. "She told me a while ago. Apparently, he sent her a valentine's card. The idiot signed it."

"Really?" I was laughing now. That was something we could use. "So do you think we should get her to help?"

"Maybe not," said Jenny. "She's so nice, I don't think she'd agree to anything too mean."

I frowned, hearing that. "Jenny, are you sure about this?"

"Of course! It'll be fine." She smiled. "Hey, Tee. Wait till you hear what else I found out."

The bell went before she had a chance to tell me. I sighed and started to get up.

"I don't think I can stomach another lesson," I frowned. Until I'd won this, I really wanted to stay away. And I'd had enough of the day.

"Hey, let's bunk off," suggested Jenny, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Are you serious?" I said, laughing. "They do the register in every class, and there's CCTV and things. We'd never get out, and Mrs Dormer said I'd be excluded if I got into any more trouble."

"But we've got maths next," Jenny reminded me. "And Mrs Harrison never takes the register. Come on, Tee! I know somewhere we could go without being seen. We don't even have to leave the school!"

"I don't know..." I muttered. Then I thought of Cally and the others. Why shouldn't I have fun like they did? I wasn't a geek, and I didn't have to behave myself all the time.

"Come on, then," I said at last. "Let's go."

Giggling, we went into the corridors and mingled with the rest of the school. Jenny grabbed my arm and we went to the other end of the school, towards the stairs at the back of the building. Jenny ducked under the sign telling us it was out of bounds.

"Come on!" she said. "It's perfectly safe. That sign is just there because they're paranoid about health and safety. It's fine.

I followed her through. It was dark and dusty, and had obviously already been half demolished at the weekend. As we passed under the stairs, a cloud of dust and gravel fell on us.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked.

"Of course!" said Jenny. "Come on, it's through here." She went over to a small door in the corner. It was one of those ones which you don't notice, because they're usually locked, but someone had left it open. We went through, and I closed it behind me gently and followed Jenny down another small flight of stairs. Now we were underneath the school. I got out my phone and used it's light to see. There were loads of old desks and shelves, as well as other old stock, and it was even dustier.

"We'll be filthy by the end of this!" I complained.

"Come on," said Jenny. "You have to admit, it's pretty cool her."

"Well, yeah," I admitted, sitting down on top of an old table. "And there's no way anyone will find out what we're doing!"

"Nope." agreed Jenny. "Which gives us plenty of time for phase two." She held out two mobile phones.

"These belong to Thomas and Matt," she smiled. "Now let's get started."

* * *

** Thanks to everyone who's reviewed this. Unfortunately, I won't be able to update this until next week, but I'll keep writing during that time so that next weekend I can upload a few more chapters before I go on holiday.**

* * *

**Unfortunately, I won't have time to write more before I go on holiday. I know I said I'd try to upload a few more chapters, but I really haven't had time, and I didn't get any reviews this week anyway, so I didn't think it was that important. I might do some more while I'm away, but I'm not sure if I'll have time, so I'll more likely leave it for a while, until I get more people reading this story. I'll try to make time to update this when I get back, though, so I'll probably write the next chapter in about four weeks.**


	10. The next step

I stared at Jenny in disbelief. She'd always seemed a bit boring to me, to be honest, but suddenly I was seeing a whole new side to her, and I had no idea what to make of it.

"You nicked their phones?" I asked. "How did you do that?"

She grinned. "It was easy." she said. "They're both such numskulls, they went off to play football and left their bags lying next to each other on the ground. They haven't even got passwords! So we can send messages on them, stir up some trouble for Thomas and his minion."

I don't think I'd have agreed usually, and now, thinking back, I really wish I hadn't. Then maybe this wouldn't have gone too far. But back then, I wasn't thinking straight, and it had been a tough week for me. So I found myself nodding.

"Good idea," I said. "I'll do Thomas." I wondered who I should send it to, scrolling down the contacts. Anything mean would mean to someone I wasn't targetting would mean being a bully myself, which I definitely didn't want to do. I had to think of something different, which would put Thomas Fletcher into the same situation as all the people he'd picked on, teach him a lesson. I thought briefly of putting a message on facebook, advertising drugs or something. But that would be way too much.

Then I had an idea.

* * *

**I know this is a really short chapter, but I'm not sure what to do next with the story, but thought I'd better update this since I wasn't able to write anything while I was on holiday. But thanks to everyone who's reviewed the story, and I'll continue this chapter later this week.**


	11. The end of the day

**Sorry about the long wait. I still can't decide what Tee and Jenny did, so I'm going to skip it now, and reveal it later on in the story.**

* * *

As the bell went at the end of the day I grinned smugly at Jenny. We's left our hiding place five minutes before and hidden in the toilets, so we could sneak out and mingle with the rest of the school with out being discovered. I was in a better mood after what I'd done and had almost forgotten everything that was going on - but then Bailey came over.

"Where have you been?" he hissed. "Your friends - the ones you've got left, anyway, have been trying to stop the teachers realizing you're away, and Thomas is doing planning something awful, I can tell. He's been mouthing off about you all day and shooting me looks - you're being an idiot, Tee, and you're going to get hurt."

"Like I care!" I said scornfully. "What's it got to do with you, anyway? I really don't need another Johnny. And remind me how this is any of your business?"

I was hating how he'd suddenly started getting mixed up in this. I really didn't need any more hassle, and especially not from my brother's arch enemy. And I was still waiting for an explanation to why he'd suddenly become involved.

"We're both from the same care home," said Bailey. "Maybe at the dumping ground we're enemies, but at school it's us against them. Or that's how the bullies see it, anyway."

"Yeah right Bailey. Real life isn't football, you know." I said. Honestly, he had a brain the size of a pea. Football and anger and nothing else. And I did not want to be a member of any team where he was.

I walked faster to get away from him, putting on my late-for-school pace. We were almost at the gates; I could see Carmen and Becky talking, looking away awkwardly as I went past. Bailey was far behind me, lost in the crowds leaving. I sped up down the road, taking the shortcut so I wouldn't risk passing anyone else.

Once safely round the back of the school I slowed down, though I was still seething. I couldn't believe Bailey; he'd brought up everything I didn't want to think about. His words scared me, and I wasn't sure if what me and Jenny had done had been a good idea. But I had nothing left to lose. Thomas Fletcher had no power over me; what could he do that he hadn't already?

I was glad I was on my own so I could think. It was a small terrace that had once been connected to the school; now large blocks of flats had been built, with the path between them not leading to anywhere except for Ashdene Ridge. Soon I'd be there and have to face everything, but right now I had these last few moments of peace...

Then I heard a noise behind me. I turned to look, already feeling dread. Then someone slammed me against the wall.

* * *

**I'll update soon! In the meantime, I have been making a Tee fan video on youtube at ****** /3SnTyGDiVBc **(Sorry, I don't know how to do a proper link but it works if you go on youtube then copy and paste the address). It's quite a long video but it's got all Tee's best moments so if you're a Tee fan do watch it and like or comment.**


	12. Tee makes her choice

**This chapter is going to get a lot more dramatic, ending with a cliffhanger, so I'm just going to say now that nothing really bad is going to happen to Tee. Not for at least two chapters, anyway...**

* * *

I immediately felt a sharp jab of pain in my head, but I ignored it and tried to turn round. But before I could, I was slammed against the wall again. I felt another stab of pain, and for a moment everything spun round. In that dizzy moment, they grabbed my schoolbag, and tightened their grip on me. I shook off the dizzy feeling and swung myself round with a force unexpected to them.

I could see now who'd attacked me; Matt, Sean and a bunch of other boys. Thomas's friends.

"Get off me!" I yelled, trying to wriggle free, but there were too many of them. Matt continued to shove me against the wall as Sean delved through my schoolbag, before tipping it upside down.

"Stop it!" I screamed as school books, lunch, the whole contents came pouring out. I strained as my phone fell to the hard floor, breathing a sigh of relief as it hit the ground seemingly unharmed. But Sean had seen my reaction.

"Want this, do you?" he said, before stamping on it with his shoes, then grinding it into the ground. I gasped, helpless. It had my mum's phone number on it. The only copy of it I had.

But that wasn't what Sean was after. He and another boy were now rooting furiously through the pile of stuff that lay on the floor, and inside the pockets of my bag. Sean, seemingly unable to find what he was looking for, turned back to me.

"Where are they?" he demanded.

"What are you talking about?" I said in a strangled voice, unable to hide how scared I was.

"The phones. Hand them over."

"I haven't got them!" I managed to say, wishing I did. Anything to get away. And it was obvious they didn't believe me. Another friend of Thomas's was searching me now, his eyes narrowed when he didn't find anything. I noticed that all this time, Thomas himself was nowhere to be seen. This scared me even more; whatever they were going to do to me, it was obviously serious enough that it was in his best interests to avoid being seen.

"Tell me where they are." said Matt in a quiet, sinister voice.

"I don't know," I stammered, my stomach twisting with such heavy fear it was all I could do not to be sick. Because there was no way I was going to give Jenny away. And I knew I'd face whatever was in store myself.

"Tell me," Matt repeated, an even more dangerous edge in his voice.

"I - don't - know." I spoke.

And then I froze. Because I saw what Luke was holding. Luke, the tough guy of the area, the one everyone avoided. He was deadly, fast working his way to the top of one of the toughest gangs in town. I hadn't noticed him before; he'd been skulking in the shadows. But now he came forward, the shining sharp blade of a knife swinging in his hand.

And he passed it to Matt.

"I told you," I repeated. "I don't know."


	13. Too late

Matt turned to Luke. "Look, she's not going to tell us, right?" he said. "I don't think Tee really believes we'd knife her."

I breathed a sigh of relief. The'd just been trying to scare me into confessing. But still... Thomas must be a total psycho if he'd do something like this.

"The phones had better be in my locker tomorrow," Matt said. "And Tee, you know Thomas Fletcher is worse, a lot worse than this. And he's got Luke on his side. "

I nodded dumbly and they left me. When they were gone, I sank down to the ground. Only now did it really hit me what had just happened. I couldn't believe how much I'd under-estimated Thomas Fletcher. And he hadn't even seen what we'd done with the phones...

I sprung up, suddenly alert again. I had to undo it - and quickly. Thomas had Luke on his side... Luke, who'd threatened me with a knife. And would surely do worse stuff if Thomas asked him to. All the time I'd thought Thomas's weakness was that he had no imagination, no ways of getting at me which wouldn't result in trouble for him. But that had just led to him becoming desperate enough to resort to serious stuff.

Gathering up my stuff, I rushed back to the dumping ground, going round the back to avoid Mike demanding to know why I was covered in bruises. I ran into my room, and then gasped.

There, on my bed, lay an envelope. And the lettering was in Thomas Fletcher's handwriting.

How the hell had that got there? Had someone delivered it for him?

I went to open it. Inside was a note.

Seven words.

_One more stunt and Jody gets it._

How did he know Jody was starting high school tomorrow?

I stared at the note for a second. Then I came to my senses. I needed a laptop. And quick. But whoever I asked would surely slow me down with questions and I had no time for that.

Bailey was the only person who knew what was going on and would act first, and ask questions later. But could I borrow his laptop after ignoring his warning earlier?

I had no choice. I ran to his room and banged open the door.

"Bailey, I need to check your laptop. Now."

"Tee, what the hell-?" he stared at me.

"Please, just give it to me. It's really important."

Surprised, he handed it over. I grabbed it before he could ask any questions.

I hammered at the keys, realising to my relief that it was already on. Then I opened up Facebook and my heart plummeted. Because it was there, all of it. And judging by the responses, everyone had seen it.


	14. No Way Out

**Sorry I've taken so long to update this! I've been really busy with school work as I'm doing exams this year but now it's the holidays I'll have more time to write. **

* * *

I stared at the page again. All the things Jenny and I had done, which had just seemed like good fun at the time. We'd taken photos, all fun ones, the bad, inappropriate ones, the sorts of photos boys like Thomas and Matt took but would never show anyone. I'd found quite a few things on those phones which were slightly shocking, or which I wished I hadn't seen. Jenny laughed, though; she wasn't as bad as Cally but she had had some dodgy boyfriends in the past and had experienced their sense of humour first-hand, so she shrugged and put all the worst stuff online. My contribution had been some fake posts from Thomas. All of them basically made him look like a coward, with no respect for women, and well on the way to being a criminal, ending with _"I've always wondered why I can't get a girlfriend. It's Cally I'm really after; she'd let me do anything I wanted with her, she's such a slag. I haven't got a chance of getting a girlfriend anyway, I'm so ugly I might as well just kill myself. I try to impress people by taking drugs and vandalising the school. Yes, it was me who wrote that message about Cally which Tee got the blame for. Picking on other people and making them feel bad about themselves made me feel better about myself for a while, but then I realised that it just made them see me for what I was - a sad, ugly coward with no hope of ever doing anything with my life. The truth is, I'm jealous of everyone at Ashdene Ridge. I'm not even good enough for a dumping ground. That's why I bullied Tyler. I wish I was dead, then everyone would be better off."_

I had wondered if that was taking things a bit far, especially the stuff about Cally, but Jenny grabbed the phone off me and posted it when I asked her if it was. I'd written on Matt's account too, about how he hated Thomas and only went around with him because none of them had a hope of making any other friends. It had seemed like a laugh at the time, but now that I knew that they had Luke on their side everything was different. I saw suddenly how stupid and horrible I'd been.

My hands shook and the laptop fell out of my hands, landing on the floor with a thud, but I hardly even noticed. My mind was whirring as I tried to think of a way, any way, to sort this.

"Tee!" Bailey quickly picked up his laptop, but I grabbed it off him.

"Don't look! Just don't look." I was crying now, trying to log off before he saw what was going on, but he held it out of my reach.

"No way," he said. "You are not leaving till you tell me what's going on. You're covered in bruises! What's he done to you?"

I shook my head. "It's nothing," I said. "He hasn't done anything. It's what I've done. I've done something really stupid."

"What have you done?" he demanded. And suddenly I found myself telling him everything that had happened that day.

"I thought I was being clever," I sobbed. "I didn't know that he was mates with Luke, but after school... he had a knife..."

"What?" Bailey stared at me, shocked.

"He was bluffing," I said hastily. "But still... and then, when I got home, I found the note... how the hell did that get in my room? Threatening Jody. And he hadn't even seen what I posted on Facebook..."

"I don't believe it," Bailey spat out. "I'll kill them! I'll get Rick and the guys at school and..."

"No, but look at this." Trembling, I showed Bailey the post.

"I don't know what to do!" I cried. "I've been so stupid and now Luke will do something to Jody..."

"He won't," said Bailey. "Luke's gang don't owe Thomas Fletcher anything. why would they risk getting into trouble for him?"

"Still," I said. "What should I do?"

"Lie low," suggested Bailey. "Just tell Thomas that he's won. Do what he wants. At least till Johnny gets back. You should stay off school tomorrow, definitely."

I shook my head. "I can't do that. I have to go in, whatever happens. I have to protect Jody."


	15. Talking

What I really wanted to do was just stay in my room for the rest of the evening, but Mike had other ideas.

"We really need to talk about your mum, Tee," he said, after getting me to go to the office. "Obviously it's your choice whether or not you want to see her, but she's called me again."

"I don't care," I told him. "I've got other things on my mind. If mum is too weak to stand up to bullies, that's her problem and I'm staying well away. It's Hope I'm worried about. I really think she should go into care."

Mike shook his head. "Your social worker has looked into Hope's case, and if there's a problem we will find out, but at the moment Hope seems to be safe and we don't put children in care unless there's a real problem, which there isn't." he said.

"But how do you know mum's new boyfriend isn't just as bad?" I demanded. "My mum never stands up to anyone. She just lets men walk all over her, and us too! She didn't care about me and Johnny enough to stand up for us, so what's changed now?"

I could see Mike trying to think of something to say, but I'd had enough. I just couldn't cope with everything that was happening. I walked out of the office and went to the lounge where Jody was with Tyler and Harry.

"Jody, can I talk to you?"

"What's up?" she asked as I wondered what I was going to say without scaring her.

"Well," I started. "You know how on Wednesday you're visiting high school... well, I just wanted to warn you that there's some people who are a bit weird about care kids. But you know you've got all of us at the dumping ground, so if there's any problems..."

"Is this about that boy?" Jody interrupted.

"What boy?" I stared at her.

"The one who gave me that note to give to you. After school; you weren't home so I put it in your room for you. Is he the one Johnny and Rick were fighting with?"

"I think so, yeah." I said slowly. So that's how the note had got there. It was pretty sick of Thomas Fletcher, getting Jody to deliver a note threatening her without her knowing.

"What did the note say, then?" she asked. I froze hearing that; how was I meant to answer? But before I could think of anything, she added, "he said it was because of what he put on Facebook."

"Oh. Yes, that was it." I said, relieved. So all the threats after school, with Luke, and the letter, had been after they'd already seen what Jenny and I had done. Which meant that if I stopped interfering, they'd hopefully leave Jody alone, and not do anything more to me then they'd already done.

"Don't worry about me neither," said Jody. "If anyone gives me hassle, I'll tell my brothers, or threaten to. They'll leave me alone after that."

"Good," I said, "but I still want you to tell me if you have any trouble. Any at all."

"Okay." Jody shrugged, but I needed to be certain.

"Promise," I demanded. "It's important."

"I said, okay!" Jody said impatiently, and went back to the lounge. I went back upstairs, feeling slightly better but not much.


	16. Cally is angry

**Tuesday**

The first person I saw at school the next day was Becky, Carmen's friend. She went straight up to me.

"Tee, have you seen that stuff on Facebook on Thomas's account? Crazy or what!" she gabbled.

I sighed. "Yes, I've seen it."

"It's so weird, right? But so true! Everyone's wondering if he wrote it himself, but I don't think he did, I think he got hacked. I just don't know who it was... Wait!" She stopped in her tracks, staring at me. "It was you! You and Jen, when you were bunking off! Go on, admit it!"

"Yeah, it was us." I said, reluctantly. There was no point denying it.

"I knew it!" she said triumphantly. "I had my phone on under the desk in lessons so I saw it as soon as it appeared. Oh my gosh, Thomas's face when Sean showed him. You should have been there, it was hilarious! And then the teacher caught them looking... Wait till I tell the others it was you!"

"Wait, Bex, no!" I shouted, but she'd already run off. Which meant that Cally would soon know that it was me who'd written those things about her...

I managed to avoid everyone for the first part of the day. After Becky told the girls that it had been me and Jenny, they were even more distant and I didn't blame them. Even Ruby was mad at me now, as Cally was her best friend. I still had Bex and Jenny, but they thought what I'd done was a laugh, nothing else, and hanging around with them would have meant spending the whole day gossiping about it like I'd done something great.

Morning break was always going to be a challenge. I was seriously considering spending it in the toilets, reading, but my problems had become too big to hide from. If I wanted to sort out the mess I'd created I had to face it.

So the first thing I did was I went to find Cally. She was sitting with Carmen and Melanie, in the same spot I'd been that first day, when I challenged Thomas Fletcher and she saw me coming; I could tell the moment she did by the poisonous look she gave me. I tried to ignore it and went up to her.

"What do you want?" she demanded, her voice cold.

"Cally," I stammered, "I'm so sorry about what I wrote. I don't know why I did it, I was trying to get back at Thomas and Matt and I shouldn't have used you..."

"Too right you shouldn't!" she snapped.

"I know that now." I said. "But I guess I was still upset that you didn't believe me yesterday, and the way you ditched me when I needed you..."

"Don't you **dare** make this my fault!" Cally spat.

"I wasn't," I said quickly, my voice quavering, "I just wanted to explain..."

"No! How could you hurt me like that, Tee! I thought you were my friend!"

"I am..."

"I cannot believe you think you still have a right to call yourself my friend after what you did to me! You self-centred, poisonous little cow! There is no way I'll ever forgive you for this, Tee Taylor. **I hate you**."

She'd been shouting for the whole of that, but said the last three words in a softer voice, full of meaning. And I knew that she really meant it. She hated me.


	17. Tee's Choice again

**Whoops, I've just remembered that Jody's brother is called Luke too! So in this chapter I'll just refer to him as "Jody's brother".**

* * *

After break was English, which was usually ok. However, that day our teacher was away so we got told that Mrs Harrison would be covering. She was the worst teacher and could never even control her own subject class, let alone English. Also in my class were Fletcher and his mates, as well as Cally, Carmen and Bailey, Jenny and Becky... so basically just about everyone I wanted to avoid and nobody to stop them from having a go at me.

The lesson got off to a bad start as Mrs Harrison was late arriving and we got told just to sit down. Cally and her friends made it clear that they didn't want me anywhere near them, and Carmen and Ruby just looked uncomfortable. After a while I sat at the back by myself, away from everyone I was avoiding.

We'd all been sitting waiting for about ten minutes when Mrs Dormer came in.

"What on earth is going on?" she demanded. "Where is your teacher?"

"We've got a supply teacher but she hasn't arrived yet," explained Ruby. "We, er, just got told to sit down."

"That does not excuse the atrocious level of noise," frowned Mrs Dormer. "I could hear you from the other end of the corridor! And I hope that none of you lot were involved in the appalling behaviour that was going on at break."

She shoved Bailey and Thomas into the classroom. "These two were fighting. I have just finished giving them a talking to and I don't know what this school is coming to when I have to personally escort two pupils back to class to avoid a fight in the corridor. Now I really shouldn't leave this class on their own but I have a meeting to attend which I am already late for. So," and she turned to Bailey and Thomas, "If I hear that any behaviour of this sort has gone on in this classroom anybody involved will be suspended. Bailey and Thomas, get to your seats!"

"I do not tolerate fighting!" she added before stalking out of the classroom.

I could tell by the dirty looks that Thomas Fletcher was giving me that the fight had been because of the events of the previous day.

"I'll get you for this, Tee Taylor," Fletcher snapped as he passed my desk. "And that includes Bailey and all of the mingers from your care home."

"Just leave the others out of this," I muttered.

"Excuse me, but I am not a minger!" Carmen called indignantly from across the classroom. "Do you know how long I spend on looking pretty every morning?"

"If you do anything to them I swear I will kill you!" I snapped, ignoring Carmen.

"It's Bailey who attacked Thomas!" Matt yelled. "So if you can't even face Thomas without their help, what chance have you got?"

"Look who's talking! You couldn't even stand up for your mate without using Luke and even then you had to use a knife to scare me," I turned to Bailey, "And I can handle this without you butting in and making things worse!"

"Just leave Jody alone tomorrow, or else," Bailey warned Thomas.

"Wait, what?" Carmen looked up. "They threatened Jody? Well I'm glad that message got put up on Facebook because everything it said about you was true, Thomas Fletcher!"

"Oh yeah?" he snapped back. "I'll remember you said that when I decide what to do to Jody, then! And all he other wierdo kids from the care home,"

"So you're not worried about what Jody's brothers will do to you?" I said, remembering what Jody had told me. "One of them is in prison, but the other one..."

"I've got Luke and his gang on my side, remember?" he retorted. "And I'm fed up of you ruining my reputation. This stops now, right?"

At that moment the door of the classroom was flung open to reveal Miss Dormer, her face red with fury.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" she yelled. "I have never been so completely appalled in the whole of my teaching career. Did nobody listen to a word I said? I've a good mind to suspend the whole class. And whereon earth is Mrs Harrison?"

* * *

Thomas Fletcher cornered me at lunch time.

"I meant what I said earlier." he said. "You'd better leave me to do what I want from now on."

"Not if that means bullying people," I retorted, still defiant. "And I'm not scared of Luke."

"You don't know what I'm capable of." he said. "I could ruin your life. You don't want to cross me,"

"I already have." I said. "And what did you do? A load of threats and sneaky scare tactics. You've got nothing on me, and there is no way I am letting you bully anyone ever again."

I was flared up again suddenly. There was no way I was going to be like my mum, doing nothing. The people at the dumping ground were my only family and I was determind to fight for them, like my mother had failed to do for me.

"Let's make a deal," said Fletcher slyly. "If you do anything, **anything** at all, to stop me, or challenge me ever again, this is what I'll do. I'll go to Mrs Dormer and tell her exactly what you did to my Facebook account. Remember that warning she gave you? You'll be expelled. And I'll wait till you've been expelled, and _then_ I'll make every single one of your dirty friends from the care home pay. And you won't be able to do anything about it."

I stared at him, speechless.

"Is that clear? Either you leave me to my business, or I get the care kids." He smiled. "It's your choice, Tee."


	18. The right thing to do

"So what do you say?" Thomas Fletcher demanded.

I bit my lip. There was only one thing I could do.

"I'll leave you to it," I said, "But you'd better leave everyone at the dumping ground alone."

Thomas grinned triumphantly and walked off.

"Tee, what did he want?" asked Bailey, catching me up.

"Nothing," I muttered. I wasn't in the mood for an "I told you so" lecture. And even though I seemed to be back where I'd started, I wasn't happy about how things had turned out. It wasn't like I'd had any choice, though, not really. I just hoped Thomas and his mates wouldn't do anything too bad. I couldn't believe how, after all that, he'd known exactly how to stop me from doing anything. Known exactly what was important to me.

* * *

I'd successfully avoided Jenny for the whole school day but at the end of the day she caught me up as I was walking home.

"Hey, Tee, I've been trying to speak to you all day! That revenge plan was the best! The boys were so embarrassed, we've completely ruined them!"

"Yeah, well..." I muttered, wondering how to get out of this without offending Jenny.

"So when do we get started on phase two?" she asked excitedly. "We need to get planning!"

I sighed. "Jen, there isn't going to be a phase two. I just don't think it's a good idea."

"What? Why? It went brilliantly yesterday, didn't it?" Jenny frowned, looking slightly annoyed.

"Why?" I snapped. "Well, let's see. Cally hates me, Luke's gang are threatening me, I nearly got suspended, Jody is coming to school for her induction day tomorrow and I don't want her having a bad time... is that enough of a reason for you?"

"But nobody will know it was us!"

I almost laughed. "Jenny, Becky has told just about everyone in the school that it was us. If we go online and write stuff again people will _probably_ guess that it's the same people who did the same thing the day before. Besides, I think we took things too far last time. The stuff we wrote was pretty horrible."

"It was true, though." Jenny looked at me, exasperated. "All we did was show Thomas Fletcher up for the stupid idiot he is."

I started walking faster, trying to overtake her. I was getting fed up of Jenny.

"Look," I said, "I'm not doing it anymore, okay?" I ran up to my bus stop and got on the bus that was waiting (no way was I using any short cut again).

"See you tomorrow, Jenny," I called and left her.

* * *

"Maybe it's for the best," said Kazima when I told her about it later. "You've got enough problems at home, and if you keep making trouble things would get on top of you."

"I can't just let bullies get away with things, though." I said. "I've just got a horrible feeling that Thomas Fletcher is going to get worse. And I'm not sure I'd be able to stop myself from interfering if he did. After everything I've done I'd just feel, I don't know, like I was letting myself down or something. It's hard to explain..."

"I think I understand," said Kazima thoughtfully. "You've only just started being true to yourself, standing up for what you think is right. You've become a stronger person and you're afraid to let that go."

"Um.. I guess," I said slowly, baffled by Kazima's long speeches and big words. "Kind of."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter." I said, not ready to tell her the rest of it. Not ready to tell her who I was really worried about letting down.

"So what are you going to do then? Give up?"

"I don't know." I bit my lip. "I'll try. But I don't know if I'll be able to."

I was confused, and still unhappy. I had no idea what was going to happen, or what I could do, and I didn't know what to do, what was right. I'd just have to see what happened and hope I was able to do the right thing for everyone.


	19. What Carmen found out

Carmen told me later what happened to her that evening. She was already fed up about me hanging out with Kazima and, truthfully, she was slightly jealous. After all, _she _was the one who shared a room with her. But seeing me and Kazima getting on so well had made her jealous. Also, Thomas Fletcher's comment had hurt her more than she'd shown. It was like however hard she tried to look pretty and no matter how much time and money she spent on hair, make up and clothes, she was still grouped with other care kids. She's thought she was popular, and up till now school had been her only refuge, the place she felt normal. But she'd been treated like she was filthy just for being a care kid, like no matter what she did she couldn't change this.

All in all, she was in a pretty bad mood when she went upstairs after dinner, and so what she found in her room annoyed her more than it usually would have. Someone had been at her make up, and made no effort to hide it. The tip of her eye liner was completely ruined, as if it had been used as a pencil and lip gloss had completely run out. Other bits of make up had been messily left open and her whole desk was in a mess.

Carmen ran over to the kitchen, fuming, and stormed up to Floss.

"Floss! Have you been at my make up again?" she demanded.

"No!" cried Floss, indignantly, turning to face Carmen.

"So why is your face covered in my make up?"

"It's not! This is... um... Mo's face paint..."

"Yeah right. I can't believe this! You've used my eye liner on your lips!"

"I wanted brown lips!" Floss argued.

"You wanted brown lips? That's your excuse? Well next time you want brown lips use your felt pens."

"They don't work!"

"Right, that's it. You've gone too far, Floss, and-"

"Calm down, both of you!" butted in May-Li as Carmen lunged at a screaming Floss. "Floss, you apologise. Carmen, stop over-reacting."

"Over-reacting? Floss just completely trashed all my make-up! Where's Mike? I bet he doesn't just take Floss's side,"

She stalked off to the office to complain to Mike. She found the door wide open but Mike waved her away, busy talking on the phone.

"You can not be serious," muttered Carmen and went back out. Mike closed the door behind her and started speaking on the phone again. Carmen notice he'd lowered his voice, which made her curious. She paused by the door, trying to hear what he was saying.

"You need to tell her," Carmen heard Mike say. "It's not fair to keep it from Tee, or to force Johnny to keep such a big secret. It was always going to be a shock for her, and if the way she reacted to your new boyfriend is anything to go by, she won't take it well at all."

Carmen's eyes widened. What was Mike talking about? She went closer, so she was leaning against the door. She had to hear this.

"You need to tell her carefully, and as soon as possible. She should have known from the start. Tee tends to have very strong opinions and she's going to be devastated when she finds out..."

Carmen gasped as she heard what Mike said next. Whatever she'd been expecting, it hadn't been this. No wonder Mike had sounded so agitated on the phone! She couldn't believe it.

Mike opened the door suddenly, and Carmen tumbled into the office.

"Did you hear all that?" he demanded. Carmen nodded meekly. She was in so much trouble.

"You know you're not meant to listen outside doors," he said sternly.

"I know, I'm really sorry..."

"Look, Carmen, you shouldn't have heard that. It's Tee and Johnny's business. So whatever you do, don't tell anyone. Imagine what it would do to Tee if everyone found out."

"I won't, I promise," said Carmen firmly, now wishing she hadn't heard. This was too big, and it was private.

"Only you haven't been too good at keeping secrets in the past. Can I trust you to keep quiet about this?"

"Yes, definitely. You can trust me, I won't tell anyone."

"Okay," said Mike. "Just make sure you don't."

Carmen went back upstairs, still in shock, to think about what she'd heard.

* * *

**The next few chapters are going to be very dramatic, with a lot more going on, so I'm going to have to plan them all out first, or even write them all before I post any (so I can edit), which means there might not be any updates for a week or something. I'll keep writing, though, and upload the new chapters as soon as I've finished planning and writing.**


	20. Evening and morning

**Not much happens in this chapter, but it's needed in the story to explain some stuff which happens later as like I said before, a lot is going to happen in the next few chapters which needs to be planned so it makes sense. So this chapter is mainly just for continuity. **

**Remember to review, follow and favourite if you like this story!**

* * *

"I'm glad school's closed on Thursday for elections," said Faith at dinner. "I really need a day off."

I nodded in agreement. With everything that had been going on, I wasn't sure I'd even survive one more day without a break; I still had to get through Wednesday.

"Lucky for some," sighed Bailey. "I'm in the school football team, remember, and our coach decided it would be the perfect opportunity to get in some extra practise, so I've got to go in."

"Unlucky!" said Tyler. "That's why I don't do sport. Talking of school, are you looking forward to your first day?"

"Not really," said Jody. "I bet it'll be the same sorts of boring lessons and teachers as primary, only with people being even more weird about us being in care."

"Well yeah," laughed Carmen. "Lily's sister is going too, and I don't think she's looking forward to it much either."

"Rosie Kettle?" asked Jody. "Well, I suppose at least they'll be someone I know then."

"Duh! We'll all be there too!" Tyler pointed out.

_Yeah, _I thought. _That's the problem._

Hearing everyone talking about school was making me feel worse. I knew I should try to reassure Jody because if she was worried about being treated badly for being a care kid it was probably my fault, but I just couldn't handle it right then, so I made an excuse about feeling ill and left the table. I went up to my room and got out my tablet, not really in the mood to do anything except watch TV online. First, though, I checked my emails. I was hoping for something from my mum, I suppose, though of course that would have been unlikely as she didn't have my email address. It was the only thing I could think of though, now that I'd lost my phone.

There was nothing from my mum. But there was one email, and it wasn't one of the usual automatic ones from social media sites either.

It was from Luke. Thomas's friend, the one who was in a gang, who'd threatened me with a knife. My hands shook as I clicked to open it, dreading what it said.

The message was short: _Tee. We're watching you. Your friend was planning something today; just make sure you remember the consequences._

It was short, but it was enough. I knew what was meant by _we_ too. His gang. And the message made it clear too that someone from the gang had overheard Jenny when she tried to persuade me to make another attack. I was just relieved that I'd refused.

* * *

**Wednesday**

Even though we'd kind of fallen out, I noticed that Carmen was being a bit weird towards me the next morning. I caught her looking at me strangely quite a few times at breakfast, but when she realised I'd noticed she immediately looked away.

"So what's high school like then?" Jody was asking. "Why is it so different to primary?"

"Just what you said yesterday. Bigger kids, more homework, stricter teachers," Tyler told her. "That's about it. High school is overrated."

"There's more to it than that," said May-Li. "But you'll find out soon enough."

"Tee, put that away," Mike said to me, seeing me on my tablet. "You know you're not allowed your iPad at the table."

I sighed and put it down. I'd been looking at a message from Jenny, telling me to bring it in. I was sure she was planning to get me to put something else on the internet about Thomas Fletcher, and there was no way I'd do that. Still, I thought, there was no harm in bringing in my tablet just in case she had other plans for it. I shoved it in my school bag.


	21. Morning break

I made sure that Jody was ok as soon as we got to school, but she went off with Carmen and Rosie Kettle, who had arrived by car with Christie. Carmen was still acting strangely, and it was starting to worry me, so when we got to class I plucked up the courage to try to make up with her.

"Carmen," I said, getting straight to the point. "I know I've been an idiot lately, and I don't blame you if you don't want to speak to me. But something's definitely up with you today, you've been acting weird all morning."

"Have I?" Carmen tried to sound like she had no idea what I was talking about, but she looked guilty; she'd never been good at keeping secrets.

"Yeah, you definitely have. Look, I know you, Carmen, and you're hiding something. If it's about me I think I have a right to know."

"Well, I'm not hiding anything," she snapped. "And maybe if you'd been a better friend instead of ditching me for Kazima and Jenny, I'd actually tell you stuff."

"So there is something."

"No! Why don't you leave me alone and go off with one of your new best friends."

I sighed as she turned away to talk to Ruby. I was fed up of being blanked by my so-called friends; I hadn't done anything to Carmen to make her mad at me. And there was definitely something she wasn't telling me. Finally I went to sit with Jenny.

"So what did you want me to bring my iPad for? Cos I told you, there is no way I'm -"

At that moment our teacher came in and told us to shut up.

"Look, just meet me at break, at the staircase again," hissed Jenny. "I'll tell you then."

* * *

"Jenny! What were you thinking? There is no way I am spending break time here," I said, shocked. We were at the staircase, only since we'd last been here two days ago the whole wall around it had been demolished and replaced by scaffolding. The staircase now faced out onto the playground, and we were in visible view of everyone out there. The only thing separating us was a small barrier below us stopping anyone from getting where we were, which clearly showed that this area was out of bounds and incredibly dangerous.

"What's the problem?" Jenny asked, confused. I rolled my eyes.

"We could get caught by the teachers easily, the whole thing could collapse on us..."

"We'll be fine!" Jenny said, unfazed. "Get your iPad out!"

Sighing again, I got it out. "Now what do you want it for?"

At that moment, Thomas, Matt and Sean caught sight of us. I swore, as they looked across smugly, then climbed up onto the scaffolding above us.

"Well hello, girls," Thomas jeered. "Having fun?"

"Fuck off, Fletcher. " I called up. "I thought this was over."

"That doesn't stop us from having fun with the year sixes," Matt said. "Oh, there's some now!"

The boys grabbed a can of paint and pelted it at the two year six boys who were coming past. Jenny screamed as the can flew past and reeled back, dragging me with her as it exploded on top of them, covering them in red paint. They looked up, angry, and I realised that Thomas and his gang had ducked out of sight. The kids thought it was me who'd thrown the paint.

"You boys are so immature!" Jenny shouted at Thomas and Matt, grabbing my iPad and pressing record. They just laughed.

"Are you enjoying this, Tee?" Thomas called down, pouring another can over some more year sixes. He emptied a bag of rubbish on a whole crowd of girls, some of which started crying. "There's loads of good stuff up here!" I could tell he was provoking me on purpose, knowing I couldn't do anything to stop him.

"Wait, wait. Look what I found!" I heard Sean say. I did my best to ignore them, while Jenny continued to record everything.

"So how did you find this staircase in the first place?" I asked her, trying to distract myself.

"Well, I had to go back to school for something on Friday afternoon, and I got bored and started looking round the corridors. It wasn't completely blocked off, then, they were about to start working on it, so - "

As two girls came past, Sean chucked another can down, and hit a girl. This can was the worst yet, containing some kind of strong glue, and the whole can went on her covering her in glue; hair, new school uniform, everything. As she turned round, sobbing, I gasped.

It was Rosie Kettle.


	22. Decision

** I've realised the continuity in this story isn't great; I try to make sure everything makes sense but obviously I can't go back and edit chapters I've already uploaded so sorry if I get dates or small details wrong.**

** If you're reading this for the first time remember to review, follow and favourite! BTW next chapter is going to have loads happening so make sure you read my next update**

* * *

"I think our work is done, boys," said Thomas Fletcher, climbing off the scaffolding followed by Matt and Sean.

I looked down at Rosie, who was still in tears. She'd always hated having stuff in her hair as a kid, even glitter; Carmen had fallen out with Lily because of it years ago. But now she was covered in a sticky mess of glue. I was about to call out to her, maybe apologise, but before I got a chance her friend took her arm and led her away, crying.

"I can't believe they did this," I said to Jenny, trembling with anger. "All those kids, on their first day... for Thomas Fletcher, it'a just a laugh, but Rosie and the others will be scared to go to high school now! And it's all my fault."

"No it's not," Jenny argued. "Thomas is an idiot and a bully. There's nothing you can do about that. You tried to stop him, didn't you?"

"Exactly! If I hadn't interfered they wouldn't have done that. I thought I was helping. I am such an idiot."

"You're not! And there is still something you can do." Jenny smiled suddenly, grabbed my tablet and logged on to Thomas's account on Facebook. "You can put the video I made online, show everyone what a bully he is."

"No, Jen." I shook my head."I told you. Then we'll be the bullies."

"They'd deserve it though!"

"Nobody deserves that," I said firmly. "And besides, think how the year six kids would feel if a video of them being humiliated like that got made public. Anyway, I got an email from Luke last night threatening me and there's no way I'm crossing him." Though I didn't admit it, Luke scared me.

"Well if you want to be a coward that's fine by me!" shouted Jenny.

"I'm not a coward, and don't you ever call me one!" I fumed; her remark had got to me. I looked at my tablet case; one I'd made myself with my name written across it in big fabric letters. I threw it down and went down to the playground, leaving her.

* * *

Going back into class after that was hell; I avoided Jenny, and Carmen was still being weird with me, and now it was obvious to everyone; even Bailey ended up noticing in PE.

"What's up with you and Tee, Carmen? he demanded. "You're meant to be marking her, and our team had better not lose because of you-"

"I don't think there's much danger of that happening," I snapped. "Nobody in my team is prepared to pass to me anyway." I was fed up, partly because of the heat; the good weather had been pleasant a few days ago, but now that summer was getting nearer the temperature was starting to get unbearable, especially having to do sport.

"Oh dear, lose all your friends did you Tee?" sneered Matt. "That's what happens when you start picking on people."

"Excuse me? You're the ones who were throwing paint at innocent year sixes like Rosie just to annoy me," I retorted.

"Well you didn't exactly do anything to stop us," said Sean. "Even though you were watching us the whole time; you could see exactly what we were doing and you did nothing."

"Oh well done Tee, you ruined Lily's sister's first day at this school? Great friend you are, and you wonder why I'm avoiding you!" Carmen said angrily, going back to the game.

"I don't think it's me who's the coward," remarked Thomas, in a tone that made it clear he knew he'd won. I could feel Bailey watching me, surprised, as I ignored Thomas, and I saw him go to talk to Carmen about something.

* * *

Bailey went up to me about ten minutes after the start of lunch time. I'd been sitting on my own, trying to avoid the heat and thinking how different everything was to the Friday before.

"Have you spoken to Johnny lately?" he demanded.

"No, I've tried to phone him a few times but the signal where he is never works," I said, confused. "Why are you asking?"

"Look, there's something you should know," he started, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that this wasn't going to be anything good. "It's about Carmen, she told me what was up with her in PE and I think you should know."

I didn't find out what he'd planned to say because at that moment Jody stormed up, looking furious.

"I thought you were meant to be standing up to the bullies!" she glared at me accusingly. "So how come Rosie's been bullied twice? She got glue poured all over her at morning break, and she said you were there but you didn't do anything to help. You just stood there and filmed it all!"

"I know, Jody, I'm sorry..." I started, wondering how to explain. But Jody wasn't finished.

"I spent two whole lessons getting her to go out at lunch time because she was too scared, and when she finally went in the playground that guy who gave me the note for you that time stole all her dinner money, and her phone! They kept saying she was a care kid, so all her stuff would be rubbish anyway. She's crying in the toilets now, and it's all your fault!"

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Why do you care? What happened to all your speeches about standing up to bullies, making me promise to go to you if I had any problems? I bet you were just pretending so you could act tough! If you'd meant it you'd have done something to stop that bully!"

"I know," I muttered. "I should have done, but... I can't explain, I just... I just couldn't."

"Well thanks for nothing!" Jody glared at me again and stalked off. I paused, about to call after her, but I realised I didn't have anything to say; protecting Jody was what was important, and that meant I couldn't tell her why I'd let Rosie get bullied. Bailey was still watching me.

"So you've given up." he clarified. "I didn't expect you to back down."

"It wasn't like I had much choice," I argued. "And it's so hard knowing what to do. It was either back down or let him make everyone at the dumping ground's lives a misery."

"Still," said Bailey. "I know I kept going on at you before, but that was before you knew what Thomas was capable of. You found out the hard way, but that didn't stop you. So why now?"

"Look," I said, trying to explain. "Thomas and Luke can do what they want to me, I don't care; it's them bullying other people that gets me. I've just seen too many people stand by and let bullies do what they want in my life. I wanted to do the right thing. Only now it's harder."

"Yeah, but what's wrong is letting them get away with it. Everyone at the dumping ground can look after themselves. What you're doing now is protecting the people you're loyal to, not the ones who need your help. You're making this whole thing about you."

"What do you mean?" I was confused; I hadn't considered that and wasn't sure I understood.

"Well all this was you trying to prove yourself; it wasn't about the kids you were helping at all. Face it Tee, all you've done is make Thomas Fletcher's life a misery; you haven't done anything to help anyone. This is about you getting one over on the bully, not helping the kids suffering." Bailey was angry now. "And now you've decided a bunch of kids who can look after themselves and aren't under any threat anyway are more important than the year sixes who will end up scared to come to this school."

"What could I have done about it anyway?" I demanded. The fact that Bailey was right threw me.

"You could show that video to Dormer for a start," Bailey said.

"However bad Fletcher is I can't grass him up to the head teacher," I argued. "I can't tell tales; it's like an unwritten rule in every school."

"But making yourself as bad as him to get revenge is okay?" Bailey shook his head. "I can't believe you. You know, I was starting to think there was more to you, that you were actually capable of doing something real, to stop people like Thomas Fletcher... Turns out you're even more of a loser than your brother."

He walked away angrily and I sat down, shattered. I didn't know why Bailey had lost his temper like that, but thinking about it, I realised he was right. I'd got so obsessed with getting revenge, protecting the people I liked, that I'd lost the plot. All I'd done was make more people's lives a misery.

I made my decision in a flash, and before I could change my mind, I went up to Thomas, Matt and Sean. As they turned round to face me I felt a stab of fear; I didn't know if I was doing the right thing. But I'd made my choice.

"I don't care what you do," I said to Thomas. "I'm showing the video on my iPad to Mrs Dormer. And I'm going to tell her everything. I thought I'd let you know."


	23. The Secret

"So," I muttered, pausing.

He smirked; it threw me, I hadn't expected him to smile.

"Are you sure about that?" he said. "Sure you're not worried about what I'd do to you?"

"I told you, I've made up my mind," I said, trying to mask the uncertainty I was feeling.

"Right, well before I show what you did to my Facebook account to the teachers, like I said I would if you pulled a stunt like this, there's a little message I need to add." he said slyly. "I think everyone here has a right to know who they're at school with. I mean, if that's what you did to me, what more are you capable of? It does run in your family."

"What do you mean?" I said, worriedly. Something about the smug way he was smiling made me more than a bit uneasy, and instinctively I could tell something was about to happen; something bad. But what more could Fletcher pull out of his hat?

"Wait a second," he put on an act of being preoccupied and got out his phone, tapping on it quickly; I craned my neck, trying to see what he was writing up, but he held the phone up high where I couldn't see it. I was worried now.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, but he ignored me and turned to the crowd of pupils in the playground.

"Everyone, come here, I've got something to say; it's important that you all know. Matt, Sean, get everyone up here."

I stood, frozen, as everyone crowded round; I had no idea what was going on and I had a gut feeling that I should stop this, whatever it was; it couldn't be good for me, no way. But what could I do?

"So, everyone, I wanted you all to hear me ask Tee here, about her family..." and he turned to me, and now smiling really nastily, "What's it like to have a father who used to hit you, who would probably have killed you given the chance?"

"Shut up, ok?" I muttered, my face burning. "He's not my dad and you know it. He's just some boyfriend of my mum's."

His lip curled in triumph now, and he raised his voice. "Oh yeah? That's what they told you, is it? Funny that, because your filthy mates from the orphanage seem to think differently. Right, Carmen? Bailey?"

"Don't," Carmen spoke quietly, but her voice had taken on a dangerous edge. That was it; whatever was being said I had to know; I knew for certain now it was something bad, but somehow this made me determind to know what it was.

"Can somebody just tell me what's going on!" I demanded.

"Gladly." Thomas's smile stretched even wider now, if that was possible. He looked like he'd won the lottery. "Seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding. You've been told he's your stepdad, and it's true he's not Johnny's dad. But, as I've just informed everyone via Facebook, what you don't seem to know is that that abusive monster who used to slap you around, who got you put in care... that's your real dad."

It wasn't true. It couldn't be, it had to be some kind of horrendous nightmare. Though none I'd had was this bad. My mind was reeling, and I searched it desperately for some denial, some proof it couldn't be true, couldn't be real.

"You're lying," I said desperately. "You're trying to get back at me but you can't fool me. Nice try, Fletcher." I laughed shakily, though deep down I think I knew he was telling the truth. I just wouldn't, couldn't accept it.

I stared Thomas Fletcher in the face, trying in vain to look unfazed. He raised his eyebrows, then turned away to face the school; everyone was staring with a mix of different expressions on theirs faces, some shocked, some embarrassed, quite a few people clearly enjoying this.

"She doesn't believe me. You'd better fill her in Carmen, or you Bailey, tell her what you told me. I mean it was always obvious."

I turned to Carmen, trembling. "You told him that?" I quavered, my voice shaking so hard I could hardly get the words out.

"No! I only told Bailey -" she paused. "Tee, I'm so sorry, I heard Mike speaking to your mum on the phone -"

"So it's true?" I demanded, the shock finally starting to fully reach me as the last shred of hope left me. She just looked back at me, her face telling me everything I needed to know.

"Tee, I'm so sorry-" she started, but I'd turned to Bailey.

"So it was you who told him!" I spat, my voice writhing with the disgust, all the anger and hurt I felt; he must have been the one who told Thomas, I knew Carmen wouldn't lie to me about something like that. "After everything you said to me before - that was all your plan to humiliate me, wasn't it!"

"No! You have to believe me!" he faced me, angry, challenging me to believe otherwise. "I never told Thomas, right?"

"Yeah right, who else could it have been? You're the loser here, not me, and you know it," I said vehemently.

"See that's not nice, is it, Tee." Thomas remarked tauntingly. "I think we can all agree here that you take after your dad. I mean, remember what you did to Cally? And she was your friend. Well, there's definitely resemblance, I'm sure everyone can see it. There's a violent thug, and then there's Tee here, his sneaking bitch of a daughter."

I stared at the crowd of people, some nodding in agreement, some just looking at me pityingly. I couldn't take it; this was too much for me. They all knew, and I still couldn't accept it now. I turned back to Fletcher, his grin cruel and triumphant, knowing he'd won. That did it.

I lunged at him, though people tried to pull me back; I was hysterical now.

"He is not my dad!" I yelled, punching and beating Fletcher; he tried to throw me off him, everyone did, but I was too angry, to upset, completely geared up. And a surprisingly good fighter when I was fired up; I must take after my brother, I thought. Or possibly my dad.

That should have stopped me in my tracks, knowing I'd proved Thomas Fletcher right; instead, it just made me angrier. He was fighting back now but I carried on attacking him, venting out all my anger and shock on him, getting more and more ferocious.

"Tee, that's enough." Bailey, with Rick, were suddenly in front of me, blocking my way. I was about to push them away, but saw Matt pick Thomas up off the floor and smirked instead. Quite a lot of the people around were cheering now; I realised they had been doing so the whole time I was beating up Thomas.

"Nice one, Tee!" called Tyler, who was standing with Jody. I didn't smile back, though; I was still shaken by the news.

"It's Johnny, I managed to get hold of him; they're near a phone box." Bailey broke into my thoughts and handed me his phone.

"Tee, what the hell are you playing at?" I could already hear Johnny lecturing me at the other end of the phone. "Bailey said you've been in another fight with that idiot from your class. You're going to get into trouble; I thought I told you not to get mixed up with bullies -"

"_Why didn't you tell me?!_" I yelled into the phone; I was aware that I sounded hysterical now and everyone was staring but I didn't care.

"What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you tell me he was my dad!"

There was a pause. "I wanted to," he said eventually, "But... I was protecting you. I thought it would be best."

"How the hell would you know what's best for me?" I shouted. "You should have let me decide... I bet you've known all along!"

"No, I haven't. Mike only told me recently -"

"_When?_"

"Only last week. On Thursday, the day before Mike told you about mum's new boyfriend,"

"Wait, what? So you suddenly going away to that survival camp... that was because you were too cowardly to face me, with that secret!"

"Well." Johnny paused again, but didn't deny it.

"I don't believe it! I thought I could trust you, all those years! You're meant to be my brother. I hate you! I absolutely _hate_ you, and I'm glad you're only my half brother now." I'd gone too far, but I didn't care. How could he keep that from me?

"I'm really sorry, I was trying to do the right thing..." That comment, about doing the right thing, got me more than anything else. Because for me, that was what had made everything go wrong. Perhaps that's why I said what I did next.

"Well, Johnny, I've been through hell this week trying to do the "right thing", standing up to Thomas Fletcher. And you know why I did it? It was all so I wouldn't be like mum, a coward who couldn't even stick up for her own kids. That's why everything happened. Only now apparently I've turned into my dad. And the whole school knows it. And you know what? My biggest wish right now is that I'd never been born. Or even better, that I was just dead. Then I'd be away from all this shit."

I threw down the Bailey's phone, watching as it hit the floor with a nasty thud. Then I looked around. Only now did I notice everyone still standing around, staring at me in shock. Thomas Fletcher with his nose bleeding and his minions close by. Carmen and Bailey, just looking guilty. Tyler and Jody, no longer smiling. Faith, Rick, Kazima, Rosie Kettle and Cally and Jenny and everyone else in the school... everyone I knew, they'd all been listening in.

"Find that interesting, did you?" I shouted at all of them, completely off my head now. "Well, here's some more gossip for all of you: I meant what I said on the phone. _I wish I was dead_!"

After that I couldn't take it anymore; I'd had enough. I bolted, and ran right out of the school. Away from everything.


	24. Tee loses her temper

** This chapter might seem a bit random, but it's always been in the plan for this story, so I thought I'd leave it in. (I actually started planning this a year ago, only I didn't get round to writing it for ages.) Also, when I first planned this the secret revealed in the previous chapter was meant to be that Tee had a baby sister, but obviously because of the DG episode "Hope" I had to change it!**

* * *

I ran as far as the short-cut I'd taken in the past, but stopped when I got there; I couldn't face it after what had happened with Luke and Matt there. I walked past it slightly further then sat down, my head sore from the still burning heat. I needed to think.

I considered going to my mum's place and demanding an explanation, but I didn't know where she was living now and anyway, I couldn't face it, not today; I was worn out and just wanted to get away. Only I had nowhere to go. I had some money in my school bag so I took the bus back to the stop near the dumping ground. That's where I really wanted to be, but it would mean explaining to Mike and May-Li what I was doing out of school, so I needed to kill the time till the end of school. Still, I found myself walking home and before I knew it I was outside Ashdene Ridge.

In the end I went into the garage, where I'd talked to Kazima less than a week ago, and just sat and thought. I didn't even care about Thomas Fletcher anymore, or that I hadn't managed to show the video to any teacher. After all really, everything I'd done this passed week, it had all been because of my stupid, useless family. Because I was somehow trying to prove myself. The most stupid thing ever; that was the last time I tried to do the right thing.

And what everyone now knew, about who my dad was. I still couldn't get my head around it. I'd wondered about my father in the past, who he might be, and more than most people, because I didn't have any family, not even a mother. I'd somehow always thought that, however bad my mum might be, my dad could be better, could be a proper parent. Now it felt like I was losing another part of myself, or what I might be, and gaining one I was absolutely repelled by. And I'd always assumed that Johnny and I both had the same dad. Finding out we didn't was just another shock.

I sat for ages, trying to make sense of everything, but just feeling worse. The worst thing you can do after a bad time, I've found, is nothing. Distraction is much more bearable as at least then you're not thinking about everything, at least then you can try to forget. But the more I thought over everything, the more I realised what it all meant for me, and the worse I felt about myself. I was almost relieved when I heard the others arrive back from school after what seemed like an age.

I snuck out and went in with the others, trying to be unobtrusive, ignoring sympathy and questions about where I'd been. All I wanted to do was go up to my room and watch television or do something creative, anything to distract me, to be on my own. But May-Li had other ideas.

"Have you forgotten it's your turn to do the vegetables?" she demanded, pouncing on me the moment I trudged in. "Do you think they can water themselves?"

"Do I have to?" I muttered. "I've had a crap day at school and I just want to watch TV."

May-Li stared at me, surprised; I'd never refused to do the chores before.

"You know everyone has to do their bit to help," she said. "It'll be good to know how when you grow up. Now come on." She dragged me into the garden where everyone was, playing ball games or eating ice cream. It was even hotter now, which only made my mood worse. "Go on, get to work."

"No way," I retorted, angry suddenly. "Why should I water your rotten vegetables? I'll never have a garden, and I don't even eat half the things here, and neither does anyone else."

She flinched at my outburst, but otherwise didn't react. "Just do it, Tee." she said. And suddenly I'd had enough of being ordered about, having to do chores. No normal kid ever had to do things like this, it was all because I was in care.

Furious all of a sudden, I lost my temper. I ran up to the vegetable patch and using all my force, letting out all my anger once again, I kicked ferociously at the plants growing there, kicked and trampled till all their leaves were crushed, and they started coming out of the ground, as everyone stared in shock. But I wasn't finished.

"This is what I think of your vegetables!" I yelled, grabbing them with my hands and ripping them right out in massive clumps, then trampling them into the ground, tearing them into tiny shreds in my hands. "And this is what I think of this place! Why should I have to live here, and do chores, just because of my rubbish parents? It's not fair!"

I didn't stop till I'd trashed them all, and then I stood back, my anger satisfied.

"What do you think you're doing? You've wrecked the veg!" May-Li shouted, devastated.

"Well," commented Tyler, "It's about time someone did."

"Agreed," said Carmen.


	25. Out of control

** I had to split this chapter in two as it ended up massive so I'll post the second part tomorrow.**

* * *

I looked around at everyone still staring at me in shock, as my anger wore off and I realised what I'd done.

"Tee, just go to the office, okay?" May-Li ordered. "We need to talk about this."

I went, without a word. I didn't know what was going to happen now, and really, I was past caring. May-Li came in a few moments later.

"What was all that about?" she demanded, staring at me as if I was mad, which I was starting to think I was. I shrugged, unsure what to say.

She just looked at me. "I don't know whether I should be angry with you or worried," she said. "This is completely out of character for you; why would you want to ruin the vegetables?"

"Shouldn't you be grateful that I took it out on plants, this time?" I retorted. "Last time I nearly killed Mo, remember?"

"By accident," May-Li reminded me.

At that moment Mike walked in, and he looked livid. I didn't know if it was because of the vegetables or not, but what was disconcerting was the cold way he looked at me - like I was a stranger.

"I just got a phone call from your head teacher," he said. " What on earth got in to you this week? Apparently you've been stealing, bullying, cyber-bullying, and vandalising the school. What's happening to you? Because this just isn't you - at all."

My heart sank; this was all I needed. It looked like Thomas had told Mrs Dormer, even though, in the end, I hadn't shown her the video. And made it look like I'd done everything else, too.

"No, I wasn't!" I cried, shocked. "Look, I wrote that stuff online, but I didn't do anything else! I was set up."

"Well earlier I would have believed you, but after what you did to the garden I'm not so sure," said Mike coldly. "You've been acting strangely all week, and don't think I won't get to the bottom of this, because I will. You walked out of school today, as well. "

"I did do that," I admitted. "Things... just got too much for me. And I put that stuff online. But that's all I did, I swear. Look, I know that was a mistake now. I shouldn't have done it."

"So why do it then? And stealing, too."

Well..." I wondered what to say without getting Jenny into trouble. "Look, I don't know, it's hard to explain..."

"Tell that to the school," Mike said. "Mrs Dormer was ready to expel you. So if something's wrong, I think you should say now, before you get into real trouble."

"Oh, yeah?" I was angry now; Mike was acting all caring and concerned, but he'd been just as bad as anyone. "Well, actually, there is something wrong. What's wrong is that you and May-Li didn't tell me about my dad! But you told Carmen and Bailey, and now the whole school knows!" I burst out.

Mike looked shocked then, which just made me glad. "That's why I walked out of school. So obviously I can't even trust you and May-Li, or my own mum for that matter."

"Carmen and Bailey told you?" Mike said, startled.

"No, but they did tell this guy in my class - the one who threw glue all over Lily's sister, who's been trying to ruin my life all week - How could you all keep this from me anyway?"

"We were trying to think of the best way to tell you," May-Li said patiently. "We wanted to protect you."

"Protect me?" I repeated, in disbelief. "Well you did a great job with that, didn't you? Well done, May-Li, because thanks to you and Mike "protecting me", I ended up finding out the worst way possible. Along with the rest of the school!"

"Okay, so maybe we could have handled the whole thing better," Mike said, still irritatingly patiently. I hated how they were being so calm about everything - like they didn't care at all what they'd done to me by keeping the secret.

"Yeah," I replied, "You _could_ have handled it better!"

"Well, we still need to talk about your behaviour at school," Mike said. "Whatever has happened, you can't behave like this; I really don't know what to do about you, so I've arranged for you to talk to your social worker about it tomorrow."

"What? No way! Like my social worker could do anything to help - all she ever does is force me to talk about a load of stuff which she doesn't give a crap about, then writes it all in my file and walks away thinking she's actually made a difference. No one cares about me anyway, so what's the point in talking?"

"Well the way you've been behaving there's obviously something wrong with you, and you won't tell us, so it's the only other option. You're lucky you're not being expelled."

"Fine! I can tell none of you are bothered." I cried, stomped out of the office and slammed the door behind me. I stood outside for a moment, though, listening in. In case there were any more secrets.

"That could have gone better," Mike was saying. "Do you think I was too harsh?"

"Well, maybe," said May-Li. "She has had a nasty shock. But you do need to find out what's going on."

"I know," Mike sighed. "But what she's been doing at school, and in the garden, that just can't go on. She's out of control, and to be honest I don't know what to do about it. She's normally so calm, but she's lost her temper before, and that time, Mo got hurt. We can't afford to put the other kids at risk."

"Yeah, but look at Johnny, or Bailey," May-Li argued. "They've both got anger problems, and they're all right."

"I know, but the difference is that with them, you know what to expect," said Mike. "But with Tee, it's always unpredictable... she's been at Ashdene Ridge for years, but this... it's just so out of character, and when it comes down to it, we don't really know her."

"So what do you suggest we do?" May-Li said. "It didn't sound like she was willing to speak to her social worker, and I don't think it would benefit her. Do you think she should speak to a counsellor or a psychologist or something?"

"I don't know," Mike said, "But we have to do something, it's been hard enough persuading the school to let her stay. And we really need to find out if she really did all that, and if so what's happening."

I'd heard enough, and went up to my room, upset by what I'd heard. It sounded like they thought I was out of my mind or something, and I didn't blame them; the school thought I'd done everything else as well as the internet stuff.

I got out my sewing stuff; I'd wanted to make a toy for Hope, but I couldn't concentrate on anything. All that was going round in my mind, over and over, were Thomas's words. "_T__hat abusive monster who used to slap you around, who got you put in care... that's your real dad."_ I've noticed that with bad news, anything you wish you hadn't heard, that the way you're told, the exact words of the person who tells you, stays in your mind for days, only making the pain worse. "_Well_,_ there's definitely resemblance, I'm sure everyone can see it. There's a violent thug, and then there's Tee here, his sneaking bitch of a daughter._"


	26. Talking to Carmen

After a while I heard a knock on the door.

"Go away," I muttered, Carmen shoved it open and peered in, nervously.

"Tee?" she said, cautiously. "Look, I know you hate me, but... well, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about telling Bailey."

"So why did you do it then?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I don't know; I guess it was hard keeping the secret. You've been off with me all week and then you started demanding me to tell you, and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't tell you, but you'd guessed something was up, and I needed to talk to someone. And then Bailey demanded I told him... I thought I could trust him."

"Yeah, well you were wrong, weren't you," I snapped, not quite ready to forgive her. "And what do you mean _I've _been off with _you_? You're the one who completely blanked me the moment I talked to Kazima instead of you. And didn't believe me about the graffiti."

"I know, but I know that wasn't you now. I mean, you got accused of throwing the paint too, and Rosie told me that was Thomas and Matt, not you. But, well, you had started acting weird, and I didn't know what to think."

"I know. I really don't know why I acted the way I did. And I suppose I was quite mean to you too, on Friday." I admitted. Thinking back, I realised there had been plenty of reasons for Carmen to be mad at me.

"Look, can't we just be friends again?" Carmen said. "This is all so stupid, we've both been pretty horrible this week, but we've been friends for years, haven't we?"

"I suppose..." I muttered, still unsure whether to forgive her. She'd told Bailey the secret, and she hadn't been there for me any time, but she was my friend and I did need her. "Fine," I said, reluctantly. I was no good at bearing grudges.

"Yay," smiled Carmen; then her expression changed. "Seriously, though, are you ok? I mean, finding out about your dad and everything."

I thought about it. "I don't know. What I do know is, I really hate Bailey. And why would he tell Thomas Fletcher, of all people?"

"Well, it doesn't seem like him," Carmen agreed. She was still looking at me strangely.

"What?" I demanded.

"I just... did you mean what you said before? about..." she swallowed. "Wishing you were... dead?"

She was giving me that sympathetic look again, and I didn't know what to say. What the answer was. I wished she wouldn't keep looking sorry for me, because it was just making me cry; I couldn't help it.

"I'm not sure, it's just all gone too far, everything. I've been so stupid, trying to prove myself and everything, and than Bailey made me see how I'd lost the plot, so I did something even more stupid. And then I find out that he told Thomas the secret. And then after I found out, I just felt like I'd spent the week trying to prove that I wasn't like my mum, when really I was becoming more and more like my dad. It's just like Thomas Fletcher said."

"No way!" Carmen said firmly. "You're nothing like him! You know, anyone could have done what you did. And the stuff you wrote online, that was Jenny's idea, right?"

"I still went along with it, though. I didn't need to, did I? And, I made the wrong choice. Thomas said if I challenged him he'd turn on everyone from the dumping ground. And he still might; I've seen he doesn't do empty threats."

"Oh, we'll be fine," said Carmen, dismissively. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Plenty." I sobbed. "And it'll all be my fault. I really am just like my stupid dad. Mike thinks so, Bailey thinks so, Thomas Fletcher does, so does my brother, and everyone in the school... Oh, I didn't used to be," I said as Carmen shook her head again. "I thought I was becoming a better person, or something... so stupid! I shouldn't have done anything, because now I just don't know who the hell I am."

"That doesn't matter!" Carmen argued. "Tee, you can be whatever you want to be."

"Oh, don't make it sound like this is all a fucking soap or something!" I snapped at her. "It's real, and I hate it! I hate it! Everything's just falling apart. How could one stupid decision cause so much trouble?"


	27. Thursday

**Sorry if this chapter isn't very well written, I think I was trying to hard with description and stuff. I'd have re-written it, but I was in a rush to get it posted as I want to try to finish this (or get to the climax anyway) before the 6th February, when the episode about Tee comes on TV.**

* * *

Getting to sleep that night was a nightmare in itself. I'd spent the evening trying to avoid everyone, and while at least I was friends with Carmen again and also had Kazima, Mike and May-Li were still furious and shocked at me, and nearly everyone had been there at school, heard it all; I just couldn't face them after everything, especially Bailey. So I skipped dinner and stayed in my room. The one time I did go downstairs everyone gave me these wary looks, like they didn't know what I was going to do next; like I was mental. I went back to my room as fast as possible and didn't leave for the rest of the evening. I was just glad there was no school the next day.

Lying awake at night, everything began to fully sink in the way it hadn't even done earlier; then I'd been in shock. But now, though I'd brooded over everything a million times earlier, it all came back to me all the worse.

* * *

**Thursday**

I was just thankful school was closed the next day, though that wasn't as much of a consolation as it had once been, since Mike was still adamant that I spoke to my social worker, which was just another thing for me to dread. In fact, because of lack of sleep and my bad mood I didn't wake up till ten o'clock, when May-Li finally came in and forced me to get up.

"Go on, there's loads to do today!" she insisted, switching on the light and pulling open the curtains. I groaned, squinting, as the glare of the sun filled the room and all the heat poured in.

"Go away!" I muttered, but I got up anyway after she'd gone, and reluctantly got dressed; if I didn't make an effort to act normal, she'd never leave me alone and neither would any social worker Mike got on my case. Looking good was the last thing on my mind, though, and I ended up pulling on some jeans and an ancient top with a tea cup on the front which I hadn't worn since I was ten and was now way too small for me. I barely noticed, though, and just dragged them on and mooched downstairs to breakfast.

I kept my head down and didn't speak to anyone, but I could tell they were all still looking at me. At least Bailey was at football training, so he was one person I wouldn't have to face. I wasn't really hungry either, but I forced myself to eat so they wouldn't start thinking I was anorexic or something.

"Are you all right, Tee?" Jody asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I muttered, got up and left the table. Jody had been acting more weird around me than anyone else; she was probably still worried about what had happened to Rosie.

I went up to my room to get my tablet; I thought I could bring it down to the living room and be able to watch TV on it while not making Mike worry the way he would have done if I'd stayed in my room. I also needed to look at the video of Thomas throwing paint again. I grabbed my school bag and looked inside to get it, then realised it wasn't there.

"Shit," I muttered, delving through it desperately, turning it upside down, but it wasn't there. For a moment I wondered if Thomas Fletcher had somehow stolen it, but then I remembered how annoyed I'd been when I'd last had it, at the staircase. I'd flung it down furiously, and just stormed off; I must have left it. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed earlier, but I must have been so distracted by everything that I hadn't actually looked at the video again since I'd been with Jenny, and logged into Thomas's facebook account, trying to decide whether to post the video or not...

I realised suddenly that I'd never logged out. How could I have been so stupid? Anyone could find it, I realised, and immediately work out the tablet belonged to me; it still had the case I'd designed for it, with my _name_ written on. And of course I didn't have the password.

I sat down heavily on my bed, furious with myself; how could I have been so careless? Though of course I hadn't expected something like this to happen. I thought about going back to school to get it, but then I remembered the elections happening at the school. Obviously no-one would be doing any work to demolishing the stairs, and since they were blocked of, it was unlikely that anyone would find the tablet.

I allowed myself to calm down, grabbed a book and took that down instead. I went to the living room and read for a while, though I was dreading my social worker coming; Mike had insisted on calling her despite me trying to act normal. Soon, though, I got interrupted by Tyler.

"You haven't seen Jody, have you?" he asked. "I've been looking for her everywhere."

"No I haven't," I said, trying and failing not to sound annoyed. "Not since breakfast. And, I'm trying to read. So could you -"

"Sorry," Tyler said, leaving hastily. I cursed myself; now he'd think I was even more disturbed, but I wasn't in the mood for talking at all, not even answering questions. I went back to my book, trying to get into it, but it was some old classic with way too much description and I just couldn't concentrate on it. After what seemed like a few seconds, I was interrupted again, this time by Mike.

"Tee, can you come to the office?" he said. I glanced at my watch.

"Why?" I demanded. "It's only twelve o'clock, my social worker isn't coming till later."

"Just go," Mike said, sternly now. I followed him, wondering what he wanted.

"Look, what is it?" I demanded, as soon as I was there.

"It's about Jody," Mike told me. "I take it you hadn't noticed that she's gone missing?"

"No!" I was shocked. "Why, what's happened?"

"Well, we've all been looking for her since breakfast, and someone finally thought to check her phone... she'd left it behind, and there was a text message. To you."

"What?" I said, startled. "But... I've lost my phone! So how could she-?"

"It looked like the message failed, but maybe you could take a look and tell me what's going on."

He passed me the phone, and I looked, mystified. Then I read the text.

_Im about to go to the staircase but why do you want to meet there? Isnt it blocked off?_

It took me a second to make sense of it. The staircase... the one in school - it was where I'd left the tablet. Had someone found it and sent an email to Jody, pretending to me me? For a moment I panicked, but I told myself it couldn't be Thomas or Matt. They'd never go into the school if they didn't have to, would they? Still, no matter how hard I tried to reassure myself, I couldn't shake off the feeling of panic, that something bad could be happening to Jody...

"So, which staircase is this?" Mike demanded. "And I think you'd better tell me, because from the text, it sounds like it's dangerous."

"It's at school..." I said vaguely, still in a shocked daze.

"Right, I'd better call Bailey then," Mike said. "He'll be able to get there quicker, if he's already at the school. Do you know what time the football finishes?"

"Um..." I tried to think, though I was still distracted. Then suddenly, in one sickening moment, I realised. Mike turned round, concerned, as I gave an involuntary gasp. Because Thomas Fletcher was in the school football team. So he would be at school, and of course would have found the tablet. How the hell hadn't I thought of it? And he would have sent the email to Jody, and be waiting.

"What's wrong?" Mike asked, seeing my face, probably echoing the panic and dread I suddenly felt. I barely heard him, though. All I could think of was that I had to get to the school, and fast.

I ran to the door and pulled on my trainers, fumbling with the laces, panic growing even more as I furiously tried to tie them as fast as I could. I flung open the front door and then I ran, not stopping to close the door, or check whether Mike or anyone had noticed. I tore down the street, pausing for a millisecond at the bus stop, deciding running would be quicker, and running through the short cut that had terrified me so much earlier without a second thought. All I knew was that Jody was in trouble and it was all my fault. I had no idea what Thomas Fletcher might do to her; I just knew that I had to get to that staircase first. Before he got the chance.


	28. Trapped

I was out of breath by this time, and my side was aching, but I couldn't stop, not in the dodgy alley. I forced myself to keep running until I'd got to the other side and well away, though I felt like I was going to faint now. I was fit enough, but even using the short-cut it was too far to run all the way to the school, as I was learning. I stood for a moment, catching my breath, then remembered Jody and started running again, though my legs felt like lead. It was like that dream people get, where you're being chased but can't run, can't get your legs to move. Only for me, it was real, in every way.

I finally got to the school about twenty minutes after leaving the dumping ground, and by that time I could barely walk. I staggered the last few steps, breathing in desperate, thirsty lungfuls of air and struggling not to keel over, around the back of the school to the back of the playground, facing the tower of scaffolding looming high above me and the rubbled remains of what had once been the staircase.

I hadn't registered the sheer height of the scaffolding the previous day, but now I realised just how high it was; the damage in the area must have affected the whole wall because the scaffolding stretched three floors up, to the top of the school building; much higher than the rungs on which Thomas Fletcher had sat with Sean and Matt the day before. When I'd got my breath back just enough to look around, though, I suddenly noticed that the whole area appeared to be deserted. Something was definitely wrong.

"Jody?" I gasped, still wheezing but trying to make my voice heard. "Are you there?"

For a second there was no response. Then I heard her call, "Tee!"

She sounded scared, but there was another edge to her voice, which I hadn't expected. I peered round again, and through the scaffolding, below the staircase, and then I saw her. The door underneath the stairs, leading to the cellar in which me and Jenny had spent the afternoon on Monday, was open, and at the entrance of the cellar, just behind a load of bricks that had fallen off the stairs, I could see Jody inside. And standing beside her was Thomas, with Matt... and Luke.

Without stopping to think, I ducked underneath the scaffolding and strode over to the rubble.

"Leave her alone!" I yelled at them. As I shouted, the stairs shook slightly. I stopped in my tracks; if they were so dangerous that shouting made them shake, what would happen if I actually walked underneath? Then I remembered Jody, in way more danger underneath it all; if the staircase fell, the whole cellar would fall in, crushing anyone inside. I had to get her out.

Taking a deep breath, I tiptoed forward, careful not to touch the stairs, stamp or do anything that might make them vibrate and fall. I ducked underneath, holding my breath, and stepped out, watching as the tiniest sprinkling of dust fell, but nothing else.

I stepped towards Jody, unsure what Thomas and his friends would do, but they stood back, doing nothing to stop me. This should have worried me, but I was too distracted to notice.

"Are you okay?" I demanded to Jody. "They'd better not have done anything to you..."

She didn't reply, which was also weird; she looked away edgily, looking uncomfortable.

"Jody?" I repeated. "What's going on?" I looked round, following her gaze, and realised that the boys had walked away and were now just in front of the stairs, standing on top of the rubble. I looked back at Jody, and now she looked really frightened. She gave what seemed to be a pleading look to Thomas, who in return shook his head threateningly.

I watched as she gave him one more begging look, then walked back through the door. And I suddenly realised what Thomas was about to do before he stepped forward, holding my tablet in one hand, and a key in the other. I raced forward, but I was still out of breath and a second too late; waving the tablet menacingly, he slammed the door.

I jumped back just in time as a chunk of the ceiling directly next to the door fell in front of me, showering dust in my face as he locked the door. Light streamed in through the gap where it had been, and as the dust settled I tried to fight my way forward, but the bricks off the ceiling were in my way and the dust had gone down my throat and was choking me; I coughed, trying to breath, but it was almost impossible; I couldn't speak anyway.

"Why did you make me do that?" I heard Jody cry, furious. "Tee's my friend! And what she wrote about you lot on Facebook was true! You're all bullies and cowards!"

"Shove off, or you know what'll happen to you," Thomas replied, and I heard her leave. "Now, let's see what's on this tablet."

My heart pounding with a mixture of exhaustion and desperation, I tried again to climb over the ceiling, hammering on the door as hard as I could without making the whole building fall down, but eventually I fell back, shattered, and admitted defeat; it was no use. They had my tablet... and I was trapped.


	29. What can you do

I looked around, still in shock. Since I'd been here with Jenny the place had changed completely. The old furniture had been cleared to the side and there seemed to be dust everywhere. In front of me the ceiling had just fallen in, of course, but the rest of the walls looked just as wobbly, like they could fall at any time. It definitely wasn't safe here.

I could still hear them outside, though Jody seemed to have disappeared. I sat down on the dusty ground, trying to get my head round what had just happened. It seemed like they'd forced Jody to pretend to be in trouble, but had they planned this? Why would they do that? To annoy me, of course, but it still didn't make sense...

"Right," I heard Luke say, "We've got the tablet, we've got the password, now let's do our stuff."

I listened, confused. They couldn't do much except deleting that video, could they? Then, suddenly, I realised. At the dumping ground there was only one computer, which meant we all knew each other's passwords. The plan hadn't been to get me here, it had been to find out my password. And now they had it, they could get into all my internet accounts, social media pages, probably get me back for what I'd done to Thomas and Matt's accounts.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, clambering over the rubble and hammering on the door again. I heard them laugh.

"Oh, not much." Thomas called. "Just sending a few emails, putting up some stuff... Isn't it great how Jody knew the passwords of everyone at your care home? And now I've managed to "persuade" Jody to tell us them all, there's nothing we can't do!"

I sighed; this was terrible, of course. But after everything that had happened, somehow I couldn't find it in myself to care. I didn't want everyone getting hurt, but in a way I'd known something like this would happen, and I was starting to get fed up of caring, of getting upset about everything. What was the point if there was nothing I could do about it? And in a way, I'd known something like this would happen. But I couldn't be bothered giving Thomas the satisfaction of knowing he'd upset me again. That was what he wanted.

I don't know how long I sat there, just thinking, tired of everything. It wasn't safe where I was, under the staircase, but I didn't care. What could I do, anyway? There was no way out. I could still hear Thomas and the others, vaguely, but they'd obviously gone somewhere safer. Probably given up trying to annoy me.

I thought about them again. Why was I letting them win, now? Shouting wouldn't be any use, and hammering at the door would probably cause the whole building to collapse. There had to be another way. I looked round dubiously, but there didn't seem to be anything. The only opening was the place where the ceiling had come down, above the door, and I couldn't risk that... could I?

I thought about it again. It wasn't like I had anything left to lose; by this point, I didn't care what happened to me. I went over, standing on the rubble. The room was small, and if I stood on the largest chunk of ceiling I could just reach the top wall.

I grabbed at it, wondering if it was possible to haul myself up. I was fairly agile, but I soon realised it would be impossible. I needed something higher to stand on... I looked round again and, seeing the old desks still in the corner, I dragged one over and hauled it on top of the fallen ceiling, then stood on top, praying it wouldn't fall off.

I was now high enough to clamber on to the roof of the cellar; this had been the floor of a corridor before most of it had been demolished; now it just led on to the old staircase, and then scaffolding.

I took a deep breath, then took a tentative step forward, careful not to make what I was standing on fall in too. I was shaking now, but it was too late to change my mind. Carefully, I walked across until, after what seemed like an age, I stood on top of the staircase. I looked around, trying to work out where Thomas and the others were; I couldn't see them anywhere. Then, looking up, I suddenly spotted them.

They were on the roof of the school, above the scaffolding, still holding the iPad, though they'd stopped doing stuff on it. As I looked up again at how high it was, I felt a jab of fear, but I ignored it; after everything else I'd done, this was no big deal. I walked up the steps leading through the different floors of scaffolding, trying to keep quiet so I wouldn't get spotted too quickly, but there were so many floors and steps that after a while my heart stopped racing and for the first time in ages I began to calm down; at least till I was about halfway to the top. Then got nervous again. I didn't know what I was going to do, or what was going to happen. I'd just have to hope that finally I could somehow get the better of Thomas Fletcher.


	30. The Roof

**Sorry I haven't updated this for ages! I wrote this two weeks ago, and I've been trying to improve it, but I couldn't get it any better so I'm just going to upload it as it is.**

* * *

I slowly made my way along the last metres of scaffolding, paused, then clambered onto the roof, before turning to face Thomas and his gang. Hearing me, they turned round, shocked for a second before they composed themselves and turned to face me.

"How did you get here?" Matt asked. I ignored him and reached for my iPad, lunging and managing to grab it before someone pulled it out of my way.

"Give that back!" Thomas demanded.

"Why should I?" I retorted, trying to sound confident. "It belongs to me. Though clearly, you don't seem to get the concept of belongings."

"What's going on?" I heard Jody call; I looked round, and saw her and Bailey standing in the playground, far below.

"Look who's talking." said Thomas, ignoring them. "You and Jenny stole our phones, didn't you? All we're doing is paying you back."

"You don't know when to stop, do you!" I said. "I mean, I understand paying me back, I actually did something wrong. But Jody and the other year sixes? They never did anything to you. I don't even see the point of what you were doing. You were just making people's lives a misery, for no reason!"

"Someone needed to show them who's boss."

"Who's boss? By that you mean yourself, do you? Well, I don't know who you think you're kidding. I mean, anyone can throw paint at random people." Caught up in the moment, I grabbed a pot of paint that happened to be nearby and launched it at him. He dodged, but it still went all over him. I smirked.

"See what I mean? I don't know why I even got involved in this war thing. I'd won from the start. I mean, you can bully people as much as you want and you'll still be the biggest loser in the school. At least I've got real friends."

"Oh yeah? Well, where are they now?"

In reply, I gestured towards Bailey and Jody, who were still standing in the playground, watching us. "You, on the other hand... okay, so you've got your little sidekick, Matt, and you've got Sean... but, let's face it, they're only with you because they're so desperate that they haven't got anyone else."

"That's not true!" Matt butted in, indignantly.

"It's not? Well, are you with him because you're scared of him, is that why?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Okay..." I took hold of the tablet again, putting it on video setting and pressed record. "So you're with him because you agree with bullying kids who haven't done anything, making people's lives a misery for no reason? Because you like what he does? If that's the case then go on, tell Thomas how much you like him. I'm sure the whole school will be very interested to hear that when I put the recording of you saying so online."

"Well..." he hesitated, making a grab at the tablet but I held it out of the way.

"Go on," I said. "I'm sure we all want to hear this. Are you a bully or not?"

"I'm not!" he said defiantly. I grinned.

"So why did you steal those kid's money, blackmail Jody, threaten me with a knife that time?" Seeing him pause again, I added, "I'm sure Bailey and Jody down there are interested to hear this too, right?" I turned to look down at them.

"Yeah," Bailey called up. He was smiling now, which reassured me somehow that I was doing the right thing. "I'd really like to hear what you've got against care kids, Matt."

"I've got nothing against them!" Matt retorted.

"So why do you go along with Thomas?" I asked. "Look, do you agree with him or not?"

"Well... no."

"WHAT?" Thomas demanded. Matt looked uncomfortable, but I held the iPad in his face again.

"Well, I don't think what you did was right." Matt said to him.

"Right, well if that's what you think then we're finished, yeah?" Thomas glared at him.

"What do you say to that, Matt?" I asked him.

"Yeah." Matt said at last, looking down. "And... and I think Sean would agree."

"Oh dear. Looks like you don't have any friends." I smirked. "And it doesn't really look like you've got any authority over anyone, either. I mean, clearly whoever you try to pick on, there's loads of people who'd stop you... and who could beat you in a fight. Let's see, there's me, Bailey, my brother... virtually everyone at the dumping ground actually. I mean, look at me. Even though according to you I'm "just a girl ", I was still enough of a threat to you that you felt you had to go to all what bother to stop me. If this week's done anything, it's proved just how desperate you are. And you've still got nothing on me. I can do what I like."

"Oh yeah?" he was furious now. "So I suppose you've forgotten that we're on top of the school roof?"

I laughed; was that really the best he could do? "No," I said. "But you seem to have forgotten that I'm recording everything that's going on. I'm already logged in to to my internet accounts, so all it takes is one click and the whole school will get this recording. And remember Bailey and Jody down there? Potential witnesses? So, unless you want to be expelled or arrested, the fact that we're on the roof doesn't matter."

"Yeah, well... if you think you can stop me you've got another think coming."

"Right, cos you think I want to spend my whole life fighting you? I, unlike you, have better things to do with my time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"Well, you can't have much of a life if all you've got time to do is torment younger kids. And make my life hell. I mean, on Monday, I'd been prepared to forget the whole war thing. It's you who wrote that graffiti, then framed me."

"I didn't write the message."

"Oh yeah, sure. Actually, thinking about it, that's probably true. You probably got one of your minions to do it while you still had them. Face it, without them you're nothing. You've lost this already. Although..." I turned to Matt. "Would you be prepared to be friends with Thomas again if he stopped being a bully?"

"Yeah, I would," said Matt.

"Right. And I'm sure everyone else would start to respect you more too... right, Bailey?" I called down to him.

"I suppose," said Bailey, still watching me.

"So why don't you just give up?" I suggested. "I mean, you've lost already... it would basically be way better for you."

"Yeah right! What do you know about my life? There is no way I'm giving up."

"Well I'm glad to hear that it's such a big deal for you. I'm sure everyone will be really interested to hear that, too. I could send this to anyone right now. Pupils, Miss Dormer... your mum..."

He made another grab for the iPad, but I held it out of his reach, grinning.

For a moment he just looked at me, furiously. He knew I'd won. Then he put his hand down, and scowled.

"Okay." he said eventually, still livid. "Fine. You win. I won't do anything else. But just don't put that video online, or I really will kill you."

"I don't need to." I grinned back at him. "I've got witnesses. Right, Matt? Bailey..."

I looked down at Jody and Bailey again. Bailey was smiling at me now, something I'd never seen him do. As I grinned back I suddenly knew for sure that this time, I'd done the right thing. The way he was looking at me proved it.

I continued smiling, elated, unable to believe that in the end, it had all been easy. Though things at the dumping ground were still going wrong, at least I'd managed to sort this out. Done something good. And in that moment, seeing Bailey looking at me like that, I didn't care about anything else. Maybe something good could still happen.

"I suppose you think you're clever."

I swung round, and my smile faded as I saw that it was Luke speaking. With everything happening, I'd completely forgotten about him. But he was coming towards me, and his expression was livid. Livid, and dangerous; the same expression he'd had on that Monday after school, at the short cut.

"Actually, I do think I'm fairly clever," I retorted, trying to mask the fear I suddenly felt. "What's it to you, anyway?"

"Well, you're getting way above yourself, Tee Taylor, and I don't like people who think they're better than us. You need to be taught a lesson."

I stepped back, frightened by not only what he said, but the calm, clear way in which he spoke. Without doubt.

I was now edged with my back against the ledge of the roof. He took another step towards me. Then shoved me, hard, sending me flying over the scaffolding and off the roof.

For a second I fell in slow motion, before I bumped against the wall. The sharp pain brought me back to my senses and I was suddenly able to hear Bailey yelling my name, the wall rumbling behind me as it collapsed above me, following me down. As I hit the ground I felt endless pain for one second, before the wall and the staircase came crashing on top of me, and that was the end.

* * *

**I know it's a cliff-hanger, but I don't know when I'll have time to write the next chapter, as I've got loads of school work, and my music exam next week. I'll try to update as soon as I can, though.**


	31. Jody Alone

**I'm writing the next few chapters in third person, and this one is mostly about Jody.**

**Sorry that I haven't updated this for ages, and I probably won't be able to write much any time soon, either, as I am now in S4 (the scottish version of year eleven) at school, and I have exams in May, which I'm going to be really busy revising for. I definitely won't be able to update for at least a week, but I'll try to get this story finished in the Easter holidays.**

* * *

"Tee!" yelled Jody, rushing over. She stared at the mass of rubble and bricks that had once been the school wall, beneath which Tee lay. She was hardly visible below the fallen stones, but from what Jody could see she was completely still, and her arms and legs seemed to be sticking out in odd directions.

"Bailey," Jody whispered. "She's not moving. And... there's blood."

She couldn't look anymore, or she'd be sick. Instead, she stared up at the roof. She could just make out Thomas and Luke running away into the school.

"You cowards!" she shouted after them, but they were too far away to hear her.

She turned back to look at Tee's unmoving body.

"Bailey, is she - is she dead?"

"Call the ambulance," Bailey handed Jody his phone, his face grey.

"Why? What are you - " Jody stared at him, then realised what he was about to do.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, as he picked up his bag, then started walking. "Bailey? Where are you going? BAILEY!"

He ignored her and moved faster, running out of the school gates.

"Bailey! Don't run! What are you doing? Don't leave Tee!" She started to run after him, but he was faster than her, and she was forced to give up before she'd even left the playground.

Jody sank to the ground in shock and despair, still fuming with anger. How could Bailey do that? Leave her, with Tee perhaps dead, and nobody to help? And what could she do anyway? She knew she had to ring the ambulance, but somehow she couldn't do it, couldn't face this... she was in shock, she knew, and she'd have to do something, but she didn't know what. And she was all alone.

And it was all her fault. If she hadn't fallen for that email, if she hadn't been so scared of Thomas Fletcher. If Tee died, it would be because of her. She'd be a murderer.

Jody was starting to wonder if this was all a nightmare, or if she was somehow part of some horror film. It couldn't be real, Bailey would never have run away like that. He'd tried to run away before, though, she remembered, on his first day at the dumping ground, when Faith had got run over. But surely this was different? Something about this wasn't right, anyway. It had been Bailey who had helped Tee before, and Jody had been sure he liked her.

She couldn't waste time thinking about that now though. She had to pull herself together and call the ambulance.

* * *

Jody didn't remember much about what happened next. She got told later that she'd still been in shock. All she remembered was that suddenly Mike had been there, asking her questions she couldn't answer, persuading her to get in the car. She wanted to stay with Tee, but they told her that she had to go home, that Tee was being taken to hospital. At least that meant she wasn't dead.

Later, back at the dumping ground, Mike called Jody to the office. She'd calmed down by then, but she was still quiet.

"Jody, you have to tell me what's going on." Mike said. Jody noticed suddenly how tired he looked, his face clouded with worry.

"Is Tee going to be all right?" Jody asked again.

"Well, she's still unconscious, and according to the hospital she's got a lot of broken bones where the wall fell on her, so we just don't know," Mike said gently. "But we're hoping for the best. You need to tell me what happened though, Jody. Bailey's still missing, and the police are making enquiries. I need to know why that wall collapsed, what Tee was doing on the roof. So, what happened? Jody?" he prompted, as she paused.

Jody thought quickly. She thought of how she'd felt when Luke and Thomas had threatened her, of what they'd done to Tee. She thought of what Mike would think if she told him that it was her fault. She thought about everything that had happened because of her, even before that day. It was all her fault, _everything. _Because she'd been too scared of Thomas Fletcher, and still was. And she realised that she couldn't tell Mike the truth.

"I don't know why Tee was on the roof," Jody told Mike. "She sent me a text, so I went to the school, but I found Bailey instead, and then... well, we were walking past the school, and then Tee called out to us. She just fell, and then the wall collapsed on her. That's all I know."

She was a coward, she knew, as much of a coward as Thomas, Luke and Matt, and as Bailey, who had run - that still didn't make sense. But she just couldn't say what had happened. What she'd done.


	32. Questions

** I've finally got time to update this, so I thought I'd write the next chapter now. I might even write another one this evening! I'll try to get this finished by the end of the holidays.**

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"Something's not right here," May-Li said to Mike. "For one thing, Tee's been acting really out of character. And there's definitely something Jody's not telling us."

"I got a phone call from the police earlier, too," Mike said. "They've found Tee's tablet, and there's some things on it which they're pretty concerned about. I think we should speak to Carmen about it, anyway. She's the person who's most likely to know what Tee's been up to."

May-Li nodded as Mike went to find Carmen. He hadn't told May-Li how worried he was, but the whole thing had disturbed him a lot more than he'd let on. He always thought he knew the kids at the dumping ground pretty well, that over the years he'd got to understand what people would be like, how they'd act.

But Tee was different. On the surface, she always seemed so friendly, normal, compared to people like Elektra or Floss, and Mike often forgot that Tee had had just as much of a traumatic past as any of the kids at Ashdene Ridge. And that was the problem. With other kids, Mike knew where the problem was, and had got to know their strengths and weaknesses, what they were capable off. With Tee, you could never see things coming. There was a dark side to her, but it was so rarely shown and unpredictable that Mike never knew what to expect, when Tee would be pushed too far. He'd never thought much of it before, but now, it unnerved him. Because he realised that he honestly didn't know whether or not Tee was capable of doing all the things she'd been accused of.

He needed to find out, though, now that everything had gone out of control. Now that Bailey had disappeared and Tee was unconscious in hospital, and might never wake up... Mike couldn't believe that everything had gone so wrong, without him even noticing. These kids were his responsibility, and he knew the police would be all over him. He was just lucky that for once the accident hadn't happened at Ashdene Ridge. At least this way everyone wouldn't be sent to Burneywood again. He still blamed himself, though, which was why he knew he had to sort everything out.

Mike found Carmen in her room, talking to Kazima. Carmen had been thinking about Tee since she'd found out about the accident. This had Thomas Fletcher written all over it, she thought. She just had to find a way to prove it. She'd told Kazima most of what she knew, which wasn't much, but she couldn't decide whether to tell Mike or not. If she told Mike, she knew he'd tell the school and then numerous teachers, social workers and probably even the police would be getting involved, jumping to the wrong conclusions and making decisions. And right now, things looked pretty bad for Tee. Carmen realised that the only way not to get her friend in more trouble would be to keep things to herself, be sneaky. If she did this by herself there was a chance she could even trick people into confessing, she thought. So she'd decided to keep quiet to Mike.

"How is Tee?" she asked Mike as she followed him down to the office. "Does anyone know what actually happened?"

Mike told her what he'd found out from Jody. "We don't really know much right now, though," he told Carmen. "I was hoping you might know more."

"How do you mean?" asked Carmen, acting confused.

"Well, you were the only person who knew that Keith was Tee's real dad," Mike prompted. "So you must have had something to do with the school finding out."

"I don't know about that," Carmen said. "I never told anyone, anyway. Well, nobody except Bailey."

"And you don't know where Bailey is either?" Mike asked. Carmen shook her head; at least she could be truthful about that.

"Right," said Mike. "You know how serious this is, though, don't you? It's really important that you tell me everything you know."

"I know," Carmen said, trying not to feel guilty. She would tell Mike, just not till she'd figured out more.

"Now, you really need to tell me the truth about this." Mike looked hard at Carmen. " Do you know anything about what we found on Tee's tablet?"

"No, what do you mean?" Carmen was genuinely confused by how serious Mike's expression suddenly was.

"Well, when the police looked at Tee's account, they found more messages online, really cruel ones; about those two boys in Tee's class, but also about Cally Robinson? That's the same girl Tee wrote that graffiti message about, right?"

Carmen nodded, confused. "Cally's Tee's friend, though..." Thinking about it, though, she remembered how Tee had fallen out with Cally. And she'd written really mean things about her when she'd stolen Thomas's phone.

"The thing is, though, Carmen," Mike said. "They were posted yesterday afternoon. After Tee had left the school. So she couldn't have written them. And I was wondering..."

Carmen suddenly realised what Mike was getting at. "What?" she demanded. "You think it was _me_? Tee's my friend, you know that, and so is Cally. I'd never do something like that!"

"Who was it, then?" Mike said.

"I don't know! Probably Thomas and Matt! I mean, they did ev-" She broke off, realising what she'd been about to say.

"They did what?" demanded Mike.

"Nothing," Carmen said. She needed to keep quiet, for now.

"Anyway," said Mike, still looking suspicious. "It couldn't have been those two. They were both in Mrs Dormer's office at the time. They got caught smoking, I think, I'm not sure... but anyway, it couldn't have been them."

"Are you sure?" Carmen asked, bewildered.

"Of course I'm sure. Your head teacher was with them the whole time."

"So who was it?" Carmen thought aloud, racking her brain. It couldn't have been any of Thomas Fletcher's friends who'd written the messages; Luke had left school and Sean wasn't involved enough in the whole thing. So it must have been someone else. She was confused though. Who else at the school would have done something like that?

"Can I see the tablet?" she asked. Mike shook his head.

"The police will want to look at it again," he told her. Carmen nodded absently, still wondering about everything. She'd have to figure out a way to get hold of the tablet somehow; maybe Kazima could help.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the front door open. She followed behind Mike as he left the office, to see May-Li coming in, followed by a panicked Lucy Taylor. Tee's mum glared as her eyes rested on Carmen, before turning accusingly to Mike.

"What the hell has happened to my daughter?" she demanded.


	33. Kazima's Plan

**I just wanted to mention again that this is set between series 2 and 3. I know that's probably obvious, but I thought I'd better mention it again because Tee had so many storylines in series 3 that would have impacted this story. I kind of wish I'd started writing this after series 3, so I could have included characters like Roscoe and Ryan, though! I think they'd have been really interesting in this. Anyway, this is set in May 2014, so a few months before the start of series 3.**

* * *

"Calm down," May-Li told Lucy. "Why don't you come into the office, then we can tell you what's happened properly."

Carmen waited till they'd gone, then went back to Kazima.

" Something's definitely not right, Kaz," she said. "We really need to get hold of that tablet." She told Kazima what had happened in the office.

"You're right, that is weird," said Kazima thoughtfully. "Who would have known where Tee's tablet was, though? And about everything that was happening?"

"I don't know." Carmen tried to think of people she'd seen Tee with in the last few days. "Bailey or Jenny, maybe. Or Cally, Jody, maybe Rosie Kettle or Tyler. I can't think why any of them would want to do something like that, though. Get Tee into trouble and hurt Thomas and Matt at the same time. I don't know what we can do about it, either."

"Maybe we could try asking everyone at the dumping ground what they know," Kazima suggested. "Not all together, but separately."

"How would that work, though?" Carmen asked. "I mean, Tee's been badly hurt. Anyone who's got anything to do with what happened is going to be in massive trouble. So won't they just lie about it?"

"Maybe, but... well, we don't need to accuse anyone. Just ask them what they know, see what we can figure out." Kazima grinned. "We could be like detectives, gathering clues."

"I suppose," Carmen said slowly. "Let's just see what we can figure out."

* * *

"Tee had been acting up for the whole week," Mike told Lucy. "I really didn't know what had got into her."

"Was it because of finding out about my new boyfriend?" Tee's mum asked worriedly. Mike nodded grimly.

"Partly, but I think it started before that. Apparently she'd been having trouble with some boys at her school. And then yesterday, everything kicked off. She went completely out of control, running out of the school, going crazy when May-Li asked her to do the chores. And in the middle of it all, we got the phone call from the school. She'd been behaving badly at school too, really badly. I had a hard job persuading them not to expel her."

"Expel her?" Lucy asked in disbelief. "What did Tee do that was so bad that the school wanted her expelled?"

Her eyes widened as Mike began listing everything Tee had been accused of doing, and she shook her head.

"The school must have got it wrong!" she insisted. "I can't believe that Tee would do any of those things."

"People have seen her, though." Mike said. "And it's a fair school. They wouldn't have accused Tee unless they had proof."

"I know, but still..."

"There's something else I need to tell you," Mike added. "You know how I told you how everything went overboard on Wednesday? Well... it was because Tee found out about her dad."

"What? How did that happen?"

"Well, someone overheard me in the office... and it got out. Everyone at the school found out."

"No way! You promised you wouldn't tell Tee until I said you could... how could you let that happen?" Tee's mum demanded.

"I'm sorry," Mike said. "I honestly didn't think Carmen would tell anyone."

"I know," Lucy sighed. "It's just... well, it was an awful way for Tee to find out. I know I should have told her, but, well, I suppose I wanted to protect her. I've completely messed up at that, though."

"You thought you were doing the right thing," Mike said, trying to be sympathetic. For all her faults, he knew Lucy did care about Tee, and he could only imagine how terrible she must be feeling.

"I just can't believe this could happen," she said. "I should have been there for Tee and Johnny from the start. I was always a terrible mum to them, but I thought I could improve. I thought that this time, I could be there for them. I should have told them about my new boyfriend myself, though, shouldn't I. I shouldn't have kept everything secret... only now it's too late. This is all my fault, isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Mike told her. "You can still make things right. You just need to talk to Tee, this time."

"I can't, though, can I? I mean, who knows if she'll even wake up? How do you know that she won't have brain damage, or..." Lucy couldn't even carry on speaking.

"Don't think like that. She'll be fine." Mike tried to reassure her, though he wasn't sure that what he was saying was even true. Even if Tee recovered without brain damage, the damage done when the wall collapsed on her could potentially be worse. He hadn't heard much news from the hospital yet, but apparently she'd broken a lot of bones, and who knew how bad the injuries were? There could be permanent damage. He didn't want to think about that, though.

"Can I go to see her? At the hospital, I mean?" Tee's mum asked.

"I don't know about that," Mike sighed. "Tee's in intensive care; they don't always allow visitors."

"I'm her mother, though!" Lucy objected. "I know I don't always act like it, but I am! Look, I have to see her. Please."

"Well, how about I take you to the hospital now, then maybe we can persuade them to let you see Tee." Mike said.

Lucy nodded, and followed him out of the office.

As they left, Kazima peered out from round the corner, where she'd been waiting, before signalling to Carmen, who ran over silently and unlocked the office door. They snuck in, closing it behind them.

"Right," whispered Carmen. "Let's see just what's on that tablet."

* * *

**I know not much happened in this chapter, but I thought I'd better update now, since I'm going to be really busy with exams next month. I'll be revealing what happened to Bailey in the next chapter, though.**

** I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next, but I'll definitely try to have this finished by the summer.**


	34. Where Bailey went

**Sorry I haven't updated this in months! I've been really busy with exams, and I've never been good at getting things done (I always hand in homework late at school!) Anyway, here's Bailey's chapter.**

* * *

**Three hours earlier**

"Bailey! Don't run! What are you doing? Don't leave Tee!" Jody had yelled, but Bailey was already gone, running out of the school gates faster than Jody could keep up with him. He didn't know what Jody was thinking, what she'd told the others. They'd probably all be thinking what a coward he was, running away again.

Bailey stopped a few streets away from the school to think. Running had been instinct; he'd been in shock, there'd been one thought going through his mind, one thing that had seemed more important than anything else. Only now did he realise how stupid he'd just been; leaving Jody to call the ambulance, not even stopping to check if Tee was still breathing, if she was alive or... he couldn't even bear to think about it. He couldn't go back now, though; everyone would just think he'd run away. He had to do what he'd planned, prove that he had a good reason for running.

He decided to try his phone again, then remembered he'd given it to Jody. _Idiot_. Now what could he do? He couldn't go home to get the number; there'd be a load of questions about what had happened to Tee, and he didn't have time for that.

Bailey decided to head into town to find somewhere to use the internet. As he walked, he checked his pockets - luckily he had his credit card. He still had some money on it from before he'd gone into care, and he was careful to always take his credit card with him, in case Mike found it and made him use it to pay for the many things he'd broken. He knew he'd have to use the money now, though - this was more important.

When he got to the town centre, he looked round, trying to see if there was an internet cafe or something. Unfortunately, they all seemed to be full - how could he have forgotten it was election day? There had to be somewhere he could use the internet, though. Somewhere he'd never go usually... then it came to him: the library.

Bailey usually avoided the library at all costs; if any of his football friends saw him going somewhere like that, it would be social suicide, in his opinion. Not to mention that he was dyslexic; he practically had a phobia of books.

He didn't even know why he was thinking this; he should be worrying about Tee, or thinking how to make that scumbag Thomas Fletcher pay. Still, as he stood in front of the library he found himself looking around, to make sure that that no-one he knew was watching. Then he took a deep breath, and went in.

There were books everywhere; mountains of them. Bailey couldn't believe that one room could hold so many of the things; they were everywhere. He looked round desperately, trying to find a computer, or anything that wasn't a book. He couldn't even see past the mass of shelves; how could anyone want to read so much? And he was starting to get paranoid that people were staring at him suspiciously, wondering what he was up to. He looked and felt totally out of place.

Quickly he looked round some more, till he found the computers. He went on the internet, and found the address. He switched off the computer, then left the place as fast as he could, accidentally knocking a pile of hard-backs to the floor as he went.

"Excuse me, young man -" some old woman angrily called after him, but he was long gone. After he'd left the library he ran on till he was a few metres away; he couldn't be seen standing outside the library either, and the woman probably thought he was some kind of criminal who'd come in to steal books. As if!

When Bailey had stopped running, he stood against a wall to catch his breath, breathing a sigh of relief. Somehow he'd made it out of the library alive; he just hoped Tee would be grateful for all the trouble he'd gone to.

He wondered for a few moments what would be the quickest way to get to the address. It was quite far away, so he decided to use the train. It would cost him a fortune and take ages and Mike would be furious when he got back, but he didn't care; he had to do this, to help Tee. He quickly went and bought a train ticket and checked the time; luckily there were only ten minutes till the next train. Then he went to the station and sat down to wait.

There weren't many people on the train, so Bailey had a seat to himself. That was good; he needed to think things over, get his head around everything that had happened.

Why had Tee acted like that, interfered with someone like Thomas Fletcher? It was so out of character for her; Bailey couldn't understand why she'd been so reckless, so stupid, as to get involved. But in a way, he'd admired her for it; how she didn't care what anyone thought, the way she'd taken such a risk. He'd never have thought someone like Tee would have it in her - that she was that brave. But had she been brave, or stupid? That's the part Bailey couldn't understand. At first he'd thought she just hadn't known what she was getting herself into, that she hadn't thought things through. But when things had got nasty and she still hadn't given up, he'd really started to admire her.

And that's what confused him. Bailey had never felt that way about anyone, the way he'd started to feel about Tee. He couldn't understand it - he'd never really noticed her in the past; Carmen was the pretty one, the one all the boys were after. Even at school, Tee blended into the background compared to her friends, Cally and Ruby. And that's how it had been for Bailey. He realised now that in the past he'd only thought of Tee as Johnny's little sister, always the kind and caring one, but completely different to Bailey; and he was sure she'd hated him, for fighting with Johnny so much. Bailey had never really seen her before.

Except one time, he suddenly remembered. She'd started a fight with him once, that time he'd been taunting Johnny about wanting to join the army. That was the only time Bailey had seen the other side to Tee, the angry side which had been present so much the last week. And now he remembered how that time, too, he'd wondered whether there was more to Tee Taylor.

She'd blamed him, though, accused him of telling Thomas about her dad. Bailey still couldn't believe that; after everything he'd done, the way he'd tried to help Tee, she still thought he was capable of that. Bailey was starting to realise, though, that he had to do something to help Tee, to at least try to prove to her that he was loyal. And that was why he was on this train.

* * *

An hour later, the train stopped. Bailey took a taxi as far as he could; he'd have to walk for about a mile, though. He was getting impatient by this time, and was getting way too much time to think. And the more he thought, the angrier he got about Thomas, the more confused he became about Tee. And, most disturbingly, he was starting to feel nervous. This was an unfamiliar feeling to Bailey, who was seldom nervous about anything; or at least made an effort not to show it. Here, though, he was all on his own, and he couldn't help wondering if he should be doing this; if it was a good idea. Maybe he should have thought things through more. It was too late now, though.

All too soon he saw the place he needed to go. He went over slowly, walking at the edge of the area, trying not to let anyone spot him. Then he stood for a moment, took a deep breath and went over to the group of people.

"Johnny," he said. "I need to talk to you. It's about Tee."


	35. Motives

** Sorry I haven't written anything in ages, I was in Malta for a week and I couldn't take my laptop. I won't be able to update next week either as I'm going to summer camp, but hopefully after that I'll have more time.**

* * *

Carmen and Kazima sat facing each other in their room, the tablet between them.

"Should we be wearing gloves or something?" Kazima was wondering.

"Well, it's too late now," said Carmen. "Anyway, Tee's our friend, she's shown us videos and things loads of times. Our fingerprints will be on it anyway. Let's just see what we can find online."

She went on the internet, then checked history. "So what do we need to look for?" she asked.

"Well, anything after 3 o'clock will be the police checking things out," said Kazima, thinking. "And we know the messages Mike was going on about were put online yesterday, right? So what we should look at first is the stuff from this morning. Do you know what time Tee had the accident?"

"Um, no!" Carmen said, outraged. "To be honest, when your best friend is in a coma it can be quite hard to think rationally. You wouldn't know that, though. I mean, you haven't been in that position. But I have - twice now!"

"I'm sure Tee will be fine," said Kazima, trying to comfort her.

"I hope so." Carmen bit her lip. "I just don't understand anything that's happened. Everything changed so quickly, and I didn't do anything to help her... I mean, at the beginning it was just Thomas Fletcher, I thought that wasn't too serious. But then, when I found out the secret, I should have just told her. Or kept quiet. I was so mad at her, though. I was jealous of the way she was making friends with you, too, to be honest..." she looked at Kazima guiltily.

"Look, it's fine," Kazima said. "I mean, we've never been great friends in the past. To be honest, I think the only reason Tee spoke to me instead of you was because she felt the same way as you - jealous."

"_She_ was jealous?" Carmen repeated. "But why would she be?"

"Well, you've always had Lily. Weren't you two best friends? Tee was probably left out sometimes."

"Yeah... I guess," Carmen said, doubtfully. "She always seemed fine about it, though. And she had Johnny, and Frank and Sapphire. I could have made more of an effort not to leave her out, though, I suppose. I still don't get what's been going on, though."

"Well, that's what we're about to find out, right?" Kazima said, picking up the tablet.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked. "Someone's definitely been on this," she said. "Look, there's an email. To Jody."

"What does it say?" Carmen asked.

"Well, it's telling Jody to meet Tee at school," said Kazima. "At the staircase. I think we need to ask her what she knows."

"Do you think Tee sent the email?" asked Carmen. "I thought she left her tablet at school... so someone must have been on it since. I wonder if Jody knows who it was."

"Yeah, there's definitely something she's hiding," Kazima agreed.

Just then, they heard the front door open. They went quiet for a minute, then heard Mike talking.

"And just where have you been, Bailey?" he demanded, sounding livid.

"Bailey's back?" Carmen mouthed to Kazima, who was already on her way to the door. They went downstairs to where everyone else, except Jody, was already gathering.

"What the hell is going on?" Johnny demanded, pushing his way in. Carmen and Kazima exchanged a worried look; they hadn't even thought about how he would react.

"Calm down, Johnny," Mike started, looking shocked. He hadn't been expecting to have to deal with Johnny any time soon, and he wasn't sure he could face another set of explanations; the day had been bad enough. And Johnny would take what had happened worse than anyone else. Still, Mike knew he had to deal with this.

"No way!" Johnny yelled. "What's happened to Tee? Why didn't anyone tell me what was going on, or do something about it? I can't believe Bailey had to tell me what was going on."

"Look, Johnny, we tried to help -"

"Not very hard!"

"Look, nobody really knew what was going on," Mike tried to explain. "And we still don't."

As Mike took a hysterical Johnny into the office, Carmen and Kazima turned to Bailey.

"You'd better tell us what you know," Carmen said.

* * *

"No way!" Carmen burst out, when Bailey had told them everything. "We should go to the police."

Bailey frowned. "Luke's dangerous, though. I mean, he pushed Tee off the roof, threatened her with a knife... who even does that? And it was Thomas who Tee had been fighting with; Luke wasn't even really involved."

"Why would he do all that then?" Carmen asked.

"Cos he's mad, that's why. And he probably wants to prove he's tough or something."

"You could be right," Kazima chipped in. "I've met people like that; before I came to England, and when I lived on the streets too. There's loads of bad people about; they just never get caught."

"Yeah, but I still don't get it," Carmen shook her head. "I mean, Tee hadn't done anything to Luke. I don't think she even knew him. Why would he risk being arrested for Thomas?"

Kazima thought for a moment. Then she turned to Bailey. "You said Luke, Matt and some other boys threatened Tee with a knife that time? There were a whole group of them?"

"Well, that's what she told me," Bailey said. "And she was pretty shaken at the time."

Kazima nodded. "I think I know why Luke would get involved then," she said, grimly. "I'm pretty sure Thomas and his friends joined Luke's gang. That's why Luke did all that; to prove he was loyal, and to test them."

"You could be right," Bailey muttered. "But why would Matt have backed out on the roof, when Tee challenged him?"

"Maybe Matt wasn't in," Kazima said, thinking. "Luke knew Thomas had what it took to join his gang, but he was probably not sure about Matt. That's why he handed the knife to him. And Matt wouldn't hurt Tee; so he failed. He's not in the gang."

"But Thomas is?" Carmen whispered. "What on earth did Tee get herself into?"

"People like that can be pretty nasty," Kazima said. "The question now is, do we tell the police?"

"Well, why wouldn't we?" Carmen demanded, still confused. Kazima sighed.

"People like that, they're dangerous," she said. "What happened to Tee makes that clear. So if we tell the police, we could be in danger ourselves. And it would be a lot worse for us than for Tee. Because we would actually have got them in trouble."

"I don't care." Carmen said bravely. "We can't just do nothing."

"No," Bailey agreed. "But this isn't just about us. Thomas and Luke, they've got some sort of hold over Jody. I don't know what's going on with her, but unless we find out, I think she could be in danger."


	36. What's Jody Hiding?

**This chapter is meant to be twice as long, but I wanted to update and I wasn't ready to write the next part yet, so I've split it in two for now. I might merge this with the next chapter later.**

* * *

**Friday**

"Well, yesterday was the worst day off school ever," Floss commented at breakfast. "Ow!" she added, as Harry kicked her under the table. "What did you do that for?"

In reply, Harry pointed to Bailey, Carmen, Kazima and Johnny, none of them looking at all happy. Luckily, they hadn't been near enough to hear Floss, but Mo, usually easy-going, was giving her such a deadly glare that she shrank back.

"I hate this!" she whispered to Harry. "Everyone's so... gloomy."

"Of course they are!" Harry hissed, angrily. Floss glared back at Harry and Mo for a second, never one to back down, but luckily at that moment they were interrupted by Mike coming in. May-Li stood up and turned to him.

"Mike, do you think it's best if the kids stay off school today?" she asked. "Everyone's had a shock; I'm not sure if they'd be able to concentrate on school work today."

Mike shook his head. "I think it's best if everyone sticks to their normal routines today," he said. "It'll be a good distraction, for the younger kids anyway."

"No way," Johnny interrupted, fiercely. "I'm not going back till I know Tee's going to be all right."

"Fine, you can stay at home if you want," Mike said. "You're meant to be at survival camp anyway, so the school won't be expecting you. But as for the rest of you," He turned to everyone at high school. "I think Faith, Rick and Tyler should all go back to school too. I still need to speak to Bailey and Jody, but I can do that later, so it depends if you two are up to school or not."

He stopped, looking round. "Where is Jody?"

"I think she's still upstairs," Carmen told him. "I haven't seen her for ages." She was quite annoyed; she'd tried to speak to Jody the evening before, to find out how she'd been involved in everything, but Jody had always been with Rick or Tyler. It was like she was deliberately avoiding Carmen.

"Oh yeah, I saw her earlier," said May-Li. "She says she's not feeling well; I think she's still in shock. Maybe we should just let her stay home."

Mike nodded, then turned to Carmen, Kazima and Bailey. "What about you lot?" he asked. "Do you want to stay home, or go to school?"

They looked at each other; then Kazima said, "I think we'll all go to school."

"Are you sure?" Mike looked surprised.

"Uh, yeah," Carmen tried to convince him. "I think the distraction is best for all of us. I just can't face staying at home worrying about everything. Text me if there's any news from the hospital, though, yeah? And when Tee's ready for visitors."

Mike nodded, then sat down with the rest of them. Nobody was eating much, he noticed. He supposed he couldn't really blame them. In the end, he just decided to let everyone leave for school, though it was only eight o'clock. At the last moment, though, Carmen rushed upstairs, saying she'd forgotten her PE kit.

Carmen waited till she was out of everyone's sight, then headed for Jody's room. She stood in front of the door for a moment, then shoved it open.

Jody looked up from her bed; as soon as she saw Carmen, her expression changed to shock. She looked scared for a moment; then she came to her senses and stared at Carmen with a closed-off expression.

"What do you want?" she demanded, trying and failing to sound casual.

"Nothing, I - I just need to talk to you," Carmen said gently. "I was, um, worried about you."

"Worried?" Jody looked sceptical.

"Er, yeah." Carmen tried to sound friendly, not to alarm Jody. "You must have had quite a shock yesterday; I know I did, anyway."

"I'm okay." Jody, rather than relaxing, looked more defensive than ever. She was positively scowling now.

Carmen sighed; she'd tried to start off with easy questions, to gain Jody's trust and get her to talk, before asking her what she really wanted. It was the tactic all social workers seemed to use on care kids. Carmen should have known Jody wouldn't be fooled, though; she, like all care kids, had become experienced at evading awkward questions and hiding things from social workers. There was no way Carmen was going to trick her into giving anything away like that.

"Okay," she said, changing tactics. "What were you doing at school yesterday? Was it because of that email?"

"How do you know about the email?" Jody demanded; she wasn't even trying to hide her shock now. She actually did look ill suddenly; her face had gone pale and she suddenly looked scared.

Carmen ignored her. "Why did you give pass that note on to Tee on Monday?" she continued. "What else are you hiding?"

"Nothing!" Jody snapped. Then she looked scared again. "What else do you know?"

"What else? So there's more?"

"No!" Jody shut her mouth, as if worried she'd reveal more without realising it. "Look, just leave me alone, please."

"I just want to know what happened." Carmen said. "I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt Tee, not on purpose. Just tell me what happened to you."

"I already told Mike most of it," Jody said, trying to remember what she'd told him. "I got the email, but when I got to the school, Tee was already on the roof. And she just... fell."

"And what about Bailey?" asked Carmen. "Did you see him? Because he told me quite a different story. He said Tee didn't fall; she was pushed. And you've spoken to the person who did it."

Jody stared at Carmen. For a moment, she just looked dismayed, like she'd been really hoping that Carmen didn't know everything. Then, suddenly, she broke down.

"I didn't do anything, okay?" she yelled. "Bailey's lying! I don't know Thomas and Luke, I haven't done anything! Just leave me alone, please!"

She was sobbing now, hysterical. Carmen could tell Jody was in pieces; still, though, she had to say it.

"You know their names, though." She looked at Jody for a second, trying to figure out what was going on.

"What's going on, Jody?" she asked. "I know you, okay? And you're never scared. There's no way you'd let people like that push you around, or let them hurt your friend. Did they threaten you, or something? Is that what this is about?"

She looked into Jody's eyes; Jody flinched, still sobbing, and turned away.

"It's not that," she said. "It's worse... I can't tell you. Just leave it, okay?"

Carmen paused for a moment, wondering what to do. Jody was clearly scared; there must be a reason she was keeping quiet, and there was definitely something troubling her. Carmen was already late for school, though, and Jody was upset enough already.

"All right, I'll leave it, for now," she said. "But, Jody, if anything's wrong, you can tell me. I'm your friend."

"Thank you," Jody muttered.

"You should talk to someone, though," Carmen said. "If it's that bad. I know something's wrong, but if you won't tell, no-one can help you."

She looked at Jody again for a long moment. Then she turned round and left, closing the door behind her.

* * *

As they'd left the house early, Carmen, Kazima and Bailey decided to walk to school, so they could talk things over on the way.

"There's something wrong with Jody," Carmen told the others. "I just know it. Bailey, what exactly happened yesterday?"

"Well," said Bailey, thinking back. "We all went to football practise, as usual, but the Coach was late for some reason. Everyone was really annoyed, after we'd come into school specially and all. Thomas and his mates started acting up, climbing about the scaffolding. Most of us got annoyed, and left them to it. I guess that's when they found Tee's tablet. Coach arrived soon after that, so we started practise. We noticed Thomas and the others weren't there, but we all just assumed they'd got bored and skived off, so we got on with practise.

"After everyone had left, I stayed back to ask the Coach about something. Then he went away to the car park, and I started to walk back through the playground. Next thing, Jody came running up, yelling about how Tee was in trouble and it was all her fault. She didn't say why, though; we were too busy running. Tee was already on the roof by that time, and you know the rest."

"Did Jody say anything to you afterwards?" asked Carmen.

Bailey shook his head. "I ran away pretty much straight after Tee fell. I figured that otherwise everyone would be asking questions, so I had to get away quick. I really don't know what was up with Jody."

Carmen sighed; they still weren't any closer to finding out what was up with Jody. "What do you think we should do?" she asked.

"Maybe we could talk to Tyler," Kazima suggested, thoughtfully. "He might be able to get through to Jody; he's her friend."

Carmen nodded. "That might work," she said. "Why don't you talk to him later."


	37. Fault

**Sorry I haven't updated in ages (again). I've been in Germany for three weeks staying in my grandparent's holiday cottage, which is basically up a mountain at the edge of a remote German village... well, you can imagine, but anyway I basically had no wifi or internet connection for two weeks. Anyway, here's a massive chapter to make up for it.**

* * *

The last day had been hell for Johnny. Ever since getting the news from Bailey, coming back to find it was all true, no-one knew what was going on… no-one knew what would happen to Tee… It was like his worst ever nightmare had suddenly come true. He didn't know what to think, how to act; his automatic reaction had been anger; at everyone at the dumping ground, for letting such a thing happen, for believing everything that the school had accused Tee of doing; at himself, for not being there for his sister when she'd clearly needed him.

He should have come home immediately, right away when he'd got that phone call. He'd been worried, of course, incredibly worried. Tee would never, ever have said all the things she had unless she was really upset. He'd never seen her like that, ever. Why hadn't he just come home?

In truth, though, Johnny knew exactly why. He'd been scared; scared of Tee's reaction, the way she'd said she hated him, that she wished he was dead. He'd known that coming home would mean having to talk about the secrets from the past, face up to everything. And Johnny didn't want to go there. The past was past; it was over, gone. And it should stay there.

Now, though, all he wished was that he'd just come home, helped Tee. She'd needed him, whether she thought so or not. His sister had been in trouble, and he hadn't been there. And now it was too late. Everything was his fault.

"Johnny." Mike pushed his bedroom door open, breaking his thoughts. Johnny looked round, reluctantly. Mike was standing by the doorway, sympathy all over his face.

"What do you want?" he demanded, resisting the urge just to tell Mike to go away.

"I just wanted to know what you want to do today," Mike said gently. "You could stay in, if you're not up to doing anything? May-Li and I would be downstairs, if you needed us. Or maybe some distraction would be good? You could go out, into town maybe?"

"Like distraction's going to help," Johnny shook his head. "That's the last thing I need."

Mike nodded. "I thought you might say that. Well, third option is, we go to the hospital, so you can see for yourself how Tee is? I'm not sure if she's allowed visitors at this stage; it was family only yesterday. But since you're her brother – "

"Yeah, I want to do that," Johnny interrupted. Since he'd arrived back late the previous day, he'd only had a quick talk with Mike in the office, followed by a phone call which had confirmed that Tee had been having an operation which, while not being anything serious as it was only to sort out a badly broken leg, did mean that no visitors would be allowed at that time.

* * *

Neither Mike or Johnny spoke as they drove in Mike's car to the hospital. Johnny was silent, and Mike thought it would be best to leave him to his thoughts; Johnny was never one to hold back and Mike thought that when he wanted to talk, he would.

Johnny thought again over everything that had happened. Nobody seemed to know exactly what had been going on, but he suspected that Thomas Fletcher had something to do with it. After all, he was the one who Tee seemed to have been fighting with all week. His first instinct would have been just to run to school and beat Thomas up, saving questions for later. But that would only lead to Johnny getting into trouble, and he knew there was more going on; Mike had told him about the mysterious posts on Tee's tablet, and everything else she'd been accused of.

He could tell that Carmen and Bailey knew something he didn't, too; that part was obvious. Bailey hadn't told him much on the way back to the Dumping Ground, though Johnny had tried to ask him more; but Johnny had been too worried about Tee to be bothered. And that was sort of how he felt now; while what he'd normally have done was demand that Carmen and Bailey told him everything, his top priority now was Tee. He had to make sure she was okay; everything else could wait.

Johnny barely registered anything as the car pulled in and Mike parked the car and they walked into the large building in silence; past the reception desk and into the lift. He was vaguely glad the lift was an old one, which you couldn't see through; he was starting to feel sick. His stomach churned as he followed Mike along the corridor, and as he pushed open the door of the room where Tee was, it gave another lurch, and he thought for a moment that he might actually be sick.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw that they weren't alone.

"Mum!" he shouted, suddenly angry. She looked round from where she was standing in surprise. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Seeing my daughter," she said defensively. "I just got here a few minutes ago; I've been speaking to one of the doctors; apparently it's good news." Her face broke into a slight smile. "They've ruled out the possibility of brain damage. Tee's got a lot of broken bones, which they're still worried about, and concussion obviously; quite badly. Other than that, though, they say it's likely she'll recover fairly well."

"Fairly well?" Mike asked. "How do you mean exactly?"

"Well," Lucy said, "You'd have to speak to one of the doctors again for more details, but what they said was it's very likely she'll wake up, hopefully within a few days. Like I said, it's unlikely she'll have brain damage, so she should be okay there. The problem is the broken bones..."

"She had an operation on her spine yesterday, though, right?" Mike asked. "And they ruled out paralysis?"

"Well, yeah," said Lucy. "But she's shattered a few ribs, which could lead to breathing problems for a while. And she has a fractured arm and shoulder, too, where that wall fell on her... a shoulder can be quite hard to fix, can't it? I mean, I don't know the exact details, but I think Tee might have to stay in hospital for a while, even after she wakes up."

"Right." Mike nodded. "I think I'll go to speak to the doctor, get some more information." He hurried off, leaving Johnny with his mum.

"I'm sure Tee will be fine," Lucy said. "We can go and see her in a second, I think."

Johnny nodded vaguely, still trying to process everything he'd just heard. Tee would wake up, she wouldn't have brain damage... that was good, better than he could have hoped for. And she wouldn't be in a wheelchair or anything. But everything else... the broken bones, that she'd have to stay in hospital for a while, the fact that she was still unconscious... Johnny tried to think through everything, figure out what it all meant. There was one thing that bothered him, though, one thing that kept coming back into his head, distracting him from his thoughts about Tee.

Why had it been his mum that the doctors had told everything? Why did she even deserve to know?

He turned back to look at her, slowly. She saw him looking, and smiled sympathetically, still clearly relieved about what the doctors had said. Johnny didn't smile back.

"What are you doing here?" he asked again, only just managing to keep his voice calm.

"What do you mean?" Lucy's voice faltered as she heard the dangerous edge in his voice. "I wanted to see how Tee was; like you."

"The doctors made a mistake, though." Johnny said coolly. "Didn't they? I mean, the rule was family only. And they let you in."

"Johnny, I am family! I'm her mum, yours too. How could you say that?"

"Family? That's why you abandoned us, didn't even bother keeping in touch?" He raised his voice. "Neither me or Tee heard from you for years; no birthday cards or anything. Why do you think Tee would want anything from you now?"

Lucy looked like she'd been slapped. "I had no choice!" she protested. "You know that. Tee's forgiven me, I thought you had too. With Keith walking all over me, there was nothing I could do..."

"Yeah, right! You managed to in the end, didn't you? And you can't have hated him that much; you had Hope just recently. Only you chose him. You chose _him_, that monster who used to beat us up, who scared the hell out of all of us, over your own family." Johnny paused. "Oh, wait, though. How could I forget? Tee is his family, was all along. You were just too much of a coward to tell us."

"Come on! I wanted to, you know I did! I just couldn't..."

"Cos you were scared. Exactly. I still can't believe Tee trusted you. She thought you'd changed - "

"I have! Can't you see that?"

"Oh yeah? That's why you went and got yourself a new boyfriend, just so you could make the same mistakes again, and watch us suffer!"

"No! It's not like that. He's different to Keith, really nice! You can meet him if you like - "

"Really?" Johnny almost laughed. "Mum, exactly what planet are you on if you think there's ever any chance we'd want to meet him? You must be even more of an idiot than I thought, and believe me, that is saying something!"

"Johnny, please, you have to believe me! I have changed. I really have..."

"Do you know why Tee went through everything she did? Why she went through hell this week, got bullied, blamed for a load of stuff she didn't do? Do you want to know why she found out your little secret in front of the whole school, why she told me over the phone in front of everyone that she wished she was DEAD?" Johnny was shouting now; he was surprised Mike hadn't run over yet, with a load of doctors in tow, he was that loud. He couldn't even control himself, he was so angry.

"Do you want to know?" he repeated. His mum just looked back at him, silent tears streaming down her face. _Coward._ Johnny felt another sudden wave of fury, and looked her in the eye.

"The reason everything happened, the reason Tee's here now... it's all because she didn't want to be **you**!"

"What do you mean?" Lucy whispered.

"Tee was so ashamed of you, so determined to be different, not to make your mistakes, that she did something reckless, went against a bully who turned out to be dangerous. She didn't want to let anyone walk over her like you did. She wanted to stand up for her friends. _That's_ why everything happened, got so out of control. That's why she wished she was dead, and why we were so relieved that she's only going to spend months in hospital, and there could be permanent damage. Tee's really badly injured, and still in a coma, but we're all just so relieved that she's not going to be in a wheelchair for her whole life, or brain dead, or just plain dead. And it's all because your so-called daughter hated you so much that she was willing to do anything not to be you!" Johnny finished triumphantly, his voice hoarse from shouting. Then he looked at his mum.

She was still crying softly, and he saw her sway, then sit down against the peach wall of the room, head in her hands. It was the look on her face, though, that was most haunting. She had actually turned white; Johnny hadn't even known it was possible for a person to lose the colour in their face like that, to be so shocked. She was breathing fast, like she was bordering on having a panic attack. And her eyes blazed with pure hate. Not at Johnny, but at herself; like she was so appalled at what she'd done that she wasn't even worthy of being.

Johnny wondered if he'd gone too far; she must be worried about Tee, too, despite everything. And of course she hadn't meant for anything to happen. All those things he'd said, mostly true, but still... she shouldn't have heard them.

"I'm sorry," he said, hesitantly, after a moment. "I was out of order..."

She turned to look at him again, still shaking, but her expression had changed. Suddenly, there was a glint of determination that hadn't been there before, a glint of the fire Tee and Johnny had.

"You're right," she said, with conviction. "I've messed up, really messed up. It's time for me to change."

"You always say that," said Johnny.

"I know. I mean it, though, this time." She looked him in the eye. "I know you both hate me, that you want nothing more to do with me and I've had all the chances I deserve. You probably don't believe me, but I want to change, and I will. I have to; for Tee, and Hope. And you of course. I have to prove that I can be a good role model, a good mum. Please, just let me try."

She definitely meant what she was saying at that moment, Johnny could tell. But how long would it last?

"What about your boyfriend?" he asked.

"Well..." she paused. "He's not like Keith, really, he's not. He's a good man, I know it this time. His name's Richard and he's a teacher. I met him on an internet dating sight, a few months back. He's not like us, Johnny. He's got a stable life, family, a good home... a daughter, too; she's at university. He knows everything about what I've been through, but he's okay with it. He was prepared to give me a chance..."

"How do I know he's really okay?" Johnny wasn't sure what to think; a teacher did sound okay, especially with a kid at university. But his mum did have a terrible taste in boyfriends.

"Well, the thing is," Lucy paused, looking sheepish. "I think you know his sister."

"What? How?"

"She's a teacher too, you know," she said. "At... your school."

"What? You're kidding." That, Johnny had not been expecting, and he didn't know whether it was good or bad. "Who is she?"

"Well, I think Tee has her for maths. Richard said his sister had mentioned that a girl called Cally always disrupts her lessons. I think I've heard Tee mentioning Cally as one of her friends?"

"They _used_ to be friends, yeah."

"Well, I wonder if you know her, then? Her name's Violet Harrison. I wonder if you know - "

"Is this a joke?" Johnny didn't realise he was saying exactly the same thing that Tee had said when she'd first found out that their mum had a boyfriend. But he honestly could not believe it. "You can't be serious. Rubbish maths teacher Mrs Harrison? Your boyfriend is... Mrs Harrison's brother?"

"Well, yes." Lucy nodded. "Is there any way you'll give me one more chance? I don't deserve it, but... could you just meet him? See for yourself?"

"Maybe," Johnny said reluctantly. He wanted to believe that his mum could change, even after everything she'd done. "Not till Tee's better, though."

He paused again, looking at his mum. He didn't know whether he could trust her, whether she really meant what she'd said. But maybe all this had been a wake-up call for her. Maybe she'd surprise him.

"Let's go to see Tee now," he said.


	38. School

The text came just as they were getting off the bus. Bailey took out his phone and looked, then sighed.

"It's from Luke, warning me not to tell... where did he even get my number?" he groaned.

"Well, this is Luke we're talking about," Carmen reminded him. "But we knew he'd never forgive you if you grassed him up, anyway. So it's nothing new. Anyway, if we did go to the police, wouldn't he be, like, arrested? I don't think he can do much from prison."

"He's got his gang, though, hasn't he." said Bailey. "There's no way they'd - "

"Shh! Be quiet," Kazima hissed.

"What's up?" Carmen asked. Instead of replying, Kazima gestured towards the people around them. Carmen had been too busy talking to notice, but now she realised that nearly everyone from the school was watching them and whispering.

"Do you think they know?" Kazima asked.

"Well, probably," said Carmen. "I mean, news spreads quickly. And I did talk to Ruby and Mel, my friends, about it on the phone yesterday. I was just so shocked about everything, I needed to talk things through with someone."

"What?" Kazima demanded, outraged. "You told your friends? You know what Melanie's like, she'll have told everyone. Ruby too, probably."

"I know, I just had to talk to someone," Carmen said, apologetically. "And they were going to find out anyway, so I thought it would be best if at least they heard from someone who actually knows what happened."

"Well, I suppose," said Kazima. "No-one really knows the truth, though, do they?"

"No," said Carmen, walking towards the school gates. "Which is why today we're going to find out exactly what happened."

As they walked through, Carmen couldn't help looking towards the place where the staircase had been. She was shocked to see how much had changed again, in two days. Before, there had been scaffolding everywhere, stretching up to the roof. Now, though, the scaffolding, the staircase, the rubble, everything; it was just... gone. A large screen blocked the gaping hole that had led to the unused room below, with tape blocking off the area a few metres around it. But other than that, there was no sign that there had ever been a staircase, or that anything had happened.

"There goes Jenny's little den," she muttered; it was all she could think of to say; she couldn't bring herself to mention Tee at that moment, but felt she had to say something.

Kazima looked at her understandingly. "At least it's safe now," she said.

Carmen nodded.

"Carmen!" Carmen looked round to see Ruby, Melanie and Becky running over.

"Melanie told me what happened!" Becky said. "What's been happening? Is Tee okay?"

"We don't know yet," said Carmen. "Mike said he'd text me if there was any news."

"I can't believe it, though!" Becky said. "I mean, after Tee's meltdown yesterday, especially. It's all so unreal!"

Ruby glared at Becky pointedly, but Bailey had already turned to her, eyes blazing.

"Is that all this is to you?" he demanded. "Another piece of gossip? Tee's supposed to be your friend, and now she's in a coma! No-one knows what's going to happen to her, but it's all just another interesting story to you, is it?"

"Um, no..." Becky backed away slightly, intimidated by Bailey's angry glare. "It's just, well... it's kind of weird, is all. I mean, why was Tee on the roof anyway? Do you think she jumped, you know... on purpose?"

"No, she didn't!" Carmen scowled at Becky; honestly, she couldn't see why she was Melanie's best friend. That girl could be so insensitive. "So you'd better just shut up, Becky Smith!"

"How do you know, though?" Becky said, defiantly. "I mean, _you _weren't there. Nobody was; you lot all blamed Tee, for the graffiti and everything. _I _stuck by her."

"Yeah, and I'm starting to think that the only reason you did was because she was starting to get interesting." Carmen glared at her again. "Come on, Ruby, Mel. I have to speak to you both." She stalked of, with Kazima and Ruby.

"Are you coming?" she asked Melanie. Mel looked from Carmen to Becky, torn between her two friends.

"Uh, no... I need to... go to the toilet." she muttered. "I'll see you at break, Carmen, yeah?" And she ran off, leaving Becky behind.

"Now do you see why it was a bad idea to tell them everything?" Kazima said. "Of course Melanie was going to tell Becky everything."

"She's not usually like that," Carmen protested. "Is she, Ruby?"

Ruby shrugged.

"Okay, maybe she is," Carmen admitted. "But Melanie's one of my best friends, okay?"

"Well, she's Becky's friend too," Kazima said. "Anyway, Ruby, we have to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, what?"

"Well," Carmen tried to think of a way to avoid telling Ruby everything. She didn't want to tell everyone what had really happened till they'd found out more or decided what to do. "I'm just wondering if you know anything about what happened to Tee last week."

Ruby thought for a moment. "Not more than anyone else, I don't think... I got kind of mad at her after she was so mean to Cally that time."

"The thing is, though, someone posted more stuff online, about Cally. On Tee's account on Wednesday, near the end of the day. I just wondering if you had any idea who that would have been?"

"Oh, I saw that, yesterday." Ruby said. "Cally managed to block it pretty quickly, though. So that wasn't Tee? I didn't think it was, but I wasn't sure..."

"No, it can't have been her," Carmen said. "Tee left her tablet behind at school. The thing is, did you see anyone leave their class or anything?"

"I don't think so," said Ruby. "I'll try to remember, though..." She was interrupted by the bell. Carmen groaned.

"Oh, well, back to class then," she muttered. "I wonder if Thomas Fletcher and his friends dared to show their faces," she said quietly to Kazima. "They'd better not be here."

"Was that what you wanted to ask Ruby, then?" Kazima asked. "About the messages online? I'd completely forgotten that. Isn't finding proof about what happened yesterday more important?"

"Yeah, but we're not making much headway with that, are we," said Carmen. "Look, I'll get the tablet at lunch time, then we can see if we can find out more."

* * *

"I see Thomas didn't have the guts to show up today," Carmen whispered to Ruby, in class. "At least he had some sense; imagine what Bailey will do to him when he sees him."

Ruby nodded. "I'm not sure what happened to his side-kick, Matt, though. I saw him this morning, but there's no sign of him now. Probably got scared when he saw that Thomas hadn't come in." She suddenly looked confused. "Are you sure they did all that to Tee, though? I just... I can't imagine how people would be so mean."

"Well, it was Luke who pushed Tee off the roof, but Thomas Fletcher did a lot, too." Carmen said. "Look, I don't know why people act the way they do, maybe there was a reason for how he acted. But he's evil, just plain evil." She turned to face Ruby, annoyed. "Are you saying you don't believe me?"

"Well, no, of course not." Ruby looked uncomfortable. "I do believe you, it's just - "

At that moment, Mrs Harrison's phone rang. The class laughed as she picked it up, flustered.

"I'm sorry, class, but I have to go out for a minute," she muttered. "Cally, would you make sure everyone behaves? Or, actually, no." she countered, possibly realising that Cally was not the most responsible person. "Could you do it, Bailey?"

And she scurried out, almost dropping her phone and a load of papers as she did so.

"Honestly, sometimes I think Mrs Harrison is this bad at teaching deliberately," Carmen muttered. "I mean, who else in the world would think it was a good idea to put Cally or Bailey in charge of the class?"

"Could have been worse, though," said Ruby. "Remember that time she put Thomas in charge? I think you're right, though. She is actually pretty good at something. The problem is, the thing she's good at is being a terrible teacher!"

Carmen started laughing, but was interrupted by someone tapping her on the back. She turned around to see an incredibly awkward looking Cally.

"What is it?" Carmen asked, once again annoyed.

Cally looked even more embarrassed. "I just wanted to talk to you," she said. She took a deep breath, then continued speaking. "Look, Carmen, I know Tee didn't write the graffiti message about me. Or the stuff online yesterday."

"What, how?" Carmen was surprised; that she hadn't been expecting.

"I don't know, really. I just... well, I saw what she'd supposedly written yesterday, and I realised that she couldn't have been so mean. I mean, the whole time she was fighting against Thomas Fletcher, it was because he was a bully. So why would she be bullying me, for no reason? I was her friend before I accused her of writing that graffiti."

"It was her who hacked into Thomas and Matt's accounts with Jenny, though." Ruby told Cally. "You do know, that, right? She may not have done anything else, but she was really mean to you that time."

"I know," Cally said. "But, well, I've been thinking and I get why she did that. I wasn't always such a good friend to her, either. Maybe if I'd been there for her when she needed me, she wouldn't be in hospital now."

"That wasn't just you," Carmen said. "We didn't believe her either."

"I know," said Cally. "But we all could have done more. What I'm trying to say is, well, I understand why Tee did what she did now. But someone wanted to hurt her, and me as well. And I want to help find out exactly what happened."

"Okay," Carmen said. "Meet me at lunch time, and I'll fill you in."


	39. The Film

** Sorry I took so long to update! This chapter's extra long, to make up for it. Oh, and it recaps a lot on the events from chapters 23 and 24, so if you can't remember much about them, you might want to read them again, as they have some clues to this chapter.**

** By the way, I try to get at least one review for each chapter. The more reviews, the faster I update. So if you're waiting on the next chapter, you know what to do!**

* * *

Tyler knew he should be worrying about Tee, like everyone else was. Honestly, though, all he could think about was Jody. She'd been acting strangely for a while, now; he was worried about her. They'd been friends since she'd come to the Dumping Ground, and since then he'd got pretty good at sensing when there was something wrong with her.

It was Wednesday when she'd started acting strangely. Or, no - maybe it had been Tuesday evening. He couldn't remember exactly, but it had been around that point. He'd thought at first that she'd just been nervous about starting high school. When he'd asked her about it, though, she'd shrugged him off, saying she was fine. She'd sounded pretty defensive, too, so he hadn't pressed her.

Now, he remembered what had happened the next day, at lunch time. He'd almost forgotten, after everything that had happened; now, though, it suddenly came back to him.

He'd shown Jody round the school at morning break, and looked for her at lunch. Early on, though, he'd seen her talking to Rosie, and had left her, assuming she was busy with her friend. However, he'd just sat down with Rick and got out his lunch when Jody had walked over, looking murderous.

"I don't believe Tee!" she'd said. "I just saw Rosie, and she was all upset; do you want to know why?" Without pausing to wait for an answer, she'd gone on. "Apparently, she got a load of glue poured over her by some idiots from Tee's year! And, get this, what did Tee do? Nothing! Rosie says she just carried on what she was doing, playing on her tablet!"

"Look, Jody, slow down - " Tyler had started, trying to think of something to say. "That doesn't sound like Tee, and she'd been having some problems, right? She's probably - "

"No way! I don't believe this, those same guys are bothering Rosie again!" Jody had interrupted, looking over to the other side of the playground. "Well, that's it, they are not getting away with this!" She'd run over, a murderous look on her face.

"Why is it always the girls that do the fighting here?" Rick muttered. "I don't know if it's Tracy's influence still showing, but the girls at Ashdene Ridge take feminism way too seriously."

"Yeah..." It had taken a few seconds for Tyler to give up trying to understand what Rick was on about, and look round to where Jody was. By that time, Rosie had left, and all Tyler had seen was Jody, deep in conversation with Thomas and Matt. He'd tried to make out what was happening, but had been too far away to make out Jody's expression, or what was being said.

Just as he'd been about to go up and see what Jody was doing, though, she'd walked away suddenly and stormed over to Tee and Bailey.

Tyler couldn't remember what had happened next, but after a while he'd gone to find Jody. When he'd asked her what had happened, though, she'd suddenly got defensive, and refused to tell him anything. And she'd been distant ever since. He hadn't really spoken to her since; she'd hardly ever been around. He'd been planning to speak to her properly the day before, but then on Thursday morning she'd disappeared... and everything had happened.

Now, on Friday at morning break, he couldn't help thinking about it and wondering what on earth had been going on. Why had Jody been at the staircase that morning? Why had she been acting so weird? Why was she staying home today; what had happened to her on Wednesday?

He was so busy thinking that he almost didn't see Bailey walking up to him.

"What's up?" he asked, when he finally looked up to see him standing in front of him, frowning.

"Have you spoken to Jody recently?" Bailey demanded. Tyler shook his head.

"No, I haven't really spoken to her since Tuesday. She's been acting kind of... weird."

"Right." said Bailey, thoughtfully. "So you don't know what she was doing at the school yesterday?"

"No! I thought you would, you were there too."

"Exactly." said Bailey. "Which is why I know she's hiding something."

"Wait, what?" Tyler asked, confused. Bailey sighed; clearly, he'd have to tell him everything that he knew.

* * *

"This is mad!" Tyler said, when Bailey had explained everything to him. "So you're saying this Luke and Thomas... they pushed Tee, but the reason you're not going to the police is because you think they might hurt Jody?"

"Well, we don't know exactly," Bailey said. "But what I do know is, Jody was there yesterday. She saw what happened; but for some reason she's denying it."

"She could just be scared," Tyler pointed out. "And how come you haven't asked her about it?"

"Well, I didn't get a chance, did I?" Bailey said. "And the way Jody's acting... Carmen told me that she spoke to her earlier and she was terrified. There's more; I just don't know what."

"So, what, you want me to talk to her?" Tyler asked. "Try to find out what's going on with her?"

"Well, you are her friend," Bailey said. "And the rest of us, we're all involved somehow. You're the only one who hasn't had anything to do with what's happened."

"I've had run-ins with Thomas Fletcher too, in case you've forgotten!" Tyler protested. "I go to the same school; I don't want to get on the wrong side of him any more than you lot!"

Seeing Bailey glaring at him, though, he relented. "Fine," he said. "I'll go home at lunch time and speak to her." Jody was his friend, after all. And there was no way Tyler of all people was going to be a coward.

* * *

"So, you're saying you don't know anything about what happened, and you didn't hack into Tee's tablet yesterday?" Cally asked Becky, grumpily. "Oh, whatever. Why am I surprised? Of course she's the class gossip, she's been asking _us_ about a billion questions, but _she _doesn't know anything. Well, why would she? No-one does. Honestly, this is useless."

It was lunch time, and she, Carmen and Kazima had been trying to interview people about what they knew again.

"Calm down, Cal!" said Carmen. "Do you really think you're going to ask someone and they'll just go, "yeah, it was totally me who decided to stir up even more trouble with the school psychos and frame Tee. Just get me beaten up and expelled now."? People here are slightly brighter than that. They'll cover their tracks. They're not just going to admit to everything."

"So what do you suggest?" Cally demanded.

"Well, we could look at the tablet again," Carmen suggested, pulling it out of her bag.

"What, you brought it in?" Kazima demanded. "Are you stupid?"

"No!" Carmen said indignantly, as Cally smirked at her. "I just thought there might be some clues."

"We've already looked at everything!" Kazima said. "There was nothing."

"Come on," said Carmen. "We might as well have another look. You never know, Cally might see something."

They switched it on, and started looking at the history and saved files again.

"Nope, nothing," said Kazima quickly. "I told you! Now let's do something useful."

"Yeah, but... there must be something..."

"Wait!" Cally interrupted, suddenly. "Didn't Jenny say on Wednesday that they filmed Thomas and Matt throwing paint?"

Carmen stared at her. "Yes! You're right! How didn't I think of that?"

"Because, like Kazima said, you're an idiot," Cally said smugly, opening up the videos. "That's it, right? The latest one?" She pressed play, and all three of them looked at the screen intently.

It wasn't possible to make out out the boys from that angle; it was clear that they were somewhere above, while Tee and Jenny were sat on the scaffolding below, in front of what had once been the staircase. Carmen shivered, thinking of what had happened there just the day before.

"Are you enjoying this, Tee?" Thomas's voice suddenly rang out on the video. Then, suddenly, a tub of paint flew down on, landing on some kids walking below. "There's loads of good stuff here!" he added on the video, as a bag of rubbish was shown falling down.

Carmen sighed; this must have seemed like good evidence to Jenny when she'd filmed it, but it was impossible to see on the video who was throwing the paint.

"Wait, wait. Look what I found!" one of the boys said, on-screen. Then, suddenly, Tee's voice came, surprisingly casually.

"So how did you find the staircase in the first place?"

Carmen, watching, hardly heard Jenny's reply; at that moment, Rosie walked past on the film, and suddenly she knew what she was about to see. Sure enough, a whole tub of glue flew down, hitting her bang on the head.

That's when the film ended; Tee and Jenny must have been to shocked to carry on filming.

The girls looked at each other.

"Well, that doesn't prove much," said Kazima. "Unless the teachers can somehow recognise people by their voices."

"Yeah, I guess," Carmen said, thoughtfully. "I can't help feeling like we're missing something, though. Something obvious."

"I know!" said Cally suddenly. "That one tub of paint - it was the same shade as the graffiti message Thomas wrote about me."

"He used Tee's spray can, though," Carmen said. "That's why everyone thought she'd done it."

"It was empty, though," Cally said. "I remember her complaining about it in art last week. So Thomas must have refilled it. And I'll bet he used that tub of paint."

"How are we going to prove it, though?" Kazima said.

"I don't know," Cally shrugged, sighing. "Maybe if we watch the video again?"

She put the film back on, watching until they got to the part where that particular tub of paint was thrown. Then she paused it, defeated.

"You're right; this is useless. There's no proof."

"We've got quite a bit to work with, though," said Carmen.

"It's not like it's going to prove much, though, is it." said Cally. "Look, this next bit is just Tee and Jenny talking like nothing happened." she pressed play again.

""So how did you find this staircase in the first place?" Tee asked, onscreen. Cally shook her head, watching.

"Well, I had to go back to school for something on Friday afternoon." Jenny said. The three girls carried on watching, still not really listening as Jenny carried on. "And I got bored and started looking round the corridors. It wasn't completely blocked off, then, they were about to start working on it."

Carmen paused it suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Kazima asked. Carmen played it again.

"Well," Jenny said on the film, "I had to go back to school for something on Friday afternoon. And I got bored and started looking around the corridors."

"Jenny was there!" Carmen said in disbelief. "She was there when the graffitti message was written. So why didn't she say anything?"

"Unless..." Kazima said. "It was Jenny's idea to get revenge by stealing the phones and writing those fake messages. Jenny knew where the tablet was yesterday; nobody else did. And she was so eager for Tee to write more messages. And the one thing Thomas always denied was writing the graffiti."

Carmen gasped as everything came together. "But she wouldn't... would she?"

"She would!" Cally broke in. "The bitch! I always knew she was a scheming cow. It was her who wrote that message about me on the wall, wasn't it! And who hacked into Thomas and Matt's accounts again on Wednesday. All that time we were concentrating on Tee and Thomas; she was the one who was stirring things up! She suggested to Tee to do everything; she spurred everything on. I bet this was all a little game to her; to make me and Tee suffer, as well as Thomas and his mates! All this, everything that's happened to Tee; it's all down to her."


	40. Confrontation

** I'm writing this instead of doing homework, while listening to Christmas music (well, it's November now; usually I've already been christmas-mad for like a month by this time of year!). This chapter turned massive, so I've decided to split it in two parts again (the next chapter is about Tyler, so I can upload it on Sunday, ready for the episode of the Dumping Ground about him comes). I've decided to make the chapters slightly shorter again, so I can update more often.**

* * *

"I'll deal with this," Carmen said. "Cally, you'll just get mad at her, and Kazima doesn't even know Jenny. It's best if I confront her."

She looked around for Jenny; then, seeing her standing with Becky in a corner, talking, she walked over.

"Jenny." Carmen said calmly. "I need to talk to you. - In private," she added, seeing Becky standing next to her, listening intently.

"What's up?" Jenny asked casually, as Becky walked off.

"I was just wondering if you knew more, about what happened to Tee, you know?" Carmen watched Jenny's face carefully. "I mean, you were with her most of last week."

"Right..." Jenny frowned slightly, but looked otherwise unfazed. "Well, should we go somewhere to talk?"

"Where, though?" Carmen interrupted, pretending to think. "Isn't it such as shame that the staircase collapsed, so we can't go there? I mean, it seems to me like that's where you've had most of your grand ideas this week..."

"What do you mean?" Jenny asked, her voice slightly higher then usual.

"Oh, you know. Stealing those phones, stirring things up... the graffiti about Cally? Which Tee got the blame for?"

Carmen could tell the exact moment that Jenny registered what was happening; her face suddenly paled, and she stepped back, looking like a rabbit trapped in the headlights. But Carmen wasn't going to give her a chance to think of what to say.

"It was you, wasn't it!" she said, triumphantly. "It was all you, and don't you dare deny it. We've got proof... more or less. That film you recorded, yesterday? One of your better ideas, I'd say. It's just a shame that the only culprit it revealed was you."

"Look, I didn't mean to... it was an accident..." Jenny stammered.

"An accident? So you just wrote "Cally is a bitch" on the wall by accident, did you? And used Tee's tablet to write more messages online when she'd told you not to?" Carmen shook her head. "I don't get it, Jen. I mean, I get why you'd want to hurt Thomas and his gang, but Tee and Cally? They're your friends."

"You really don't get it, do you?" Jenny burst out, suddenly. "Carmen, you're way pretty, and popular. Everyone likes you. You've never known what it's like to be ignored, or branded as the boring one."

"What?" Carmen was speechless. "You were jealous of them? Are you actually being serious?"

"Look, like I said, you don't know what it's like!" Jenny said. "I've never had a proper friend; everyone always thought I was way too boring, too bland. Cally, she just looked down on me, every day. I tried to make friends with her, you know; when I first started year seven. But she just laughed at me. I don't think she even knows who I am; since I'm not one of the "popular" kids. It's like I'm invisible! And whenever I try to talk to her, she just mocks everything I say. She gets away with being horrible, and meanwhile, everyone likes her, follows her about like she's some kind of goddess. When all she is is a girl who happens to be pretty, happens to know how to make people like her. It's so unfair!"

Carmen stared at her; she didn't think she'd ever heard the girl speak so much at once. But, thinking about it, she supposed Jenny did have a point. Cally could be pretty mean sometimes; and Carmen hadn't even known who Jenny was before that week.

"I suppose I do get it, a bit," Carmen said. "But what about Tee? She's never done anything to you."

"You don't understand!" Jenny shouted. "Tee was the first proper friend I had; we got on really well when we started doing netball together. But I could tell she still preferred being with Cally, even though she treated everyone like dirt! But Tee was just the quiet arty one; she was almost as boring as me."

"Tee's not boring!" Carmen argued.

"Yeah, well maybe I'm not, either!" Jenny retorted. "But then, on Friday, Tee stood up to Thomas Fletcher and suddenly, everyone noticed her! That's all it took for her to be popular."

"She had a really bad time, though!" Carmen said. Then she thought. "Though, wait - that was your fault too. Nothing would have come of it if it hadn't been for that graffitti. She would have forgotten about it. And you're the one who stole the phones and persuaded her to write those messages. If it wasn't for you, Thomas would never have gone too far and framed her with a knife - he wouldn't have threatened Jody... we wouldn't have fallen out with her and she wouldn't have got in so much trouble at school!"

"Well, how was I meant to know how bad Thomas would get?" Jenny protested. "I just saw the attention Tee was getting, and I wanted some part in it. All I wanted was some fun, and attention... I never knew it would get so out of hand!"

"Why didn't you admit it was you then?" Carmen demanded. "When you still had the chance?"

"I couldn't though, could I! I knew what everyone would think of me if I admitted that everything had happened because of me. Things had gone too far by that point; way too far."

"Yeah, well." said Carmen. "Everyone knows it was you, now. So are you going to put it right?"

"What can I do now?" Jenny asked. "It's too late."

"You can still get Tee out of trouble," Carmen said. "Tell Mrs Dormer what you did." Seeing Jenny hesitate, she carried on talking. "Look, I know you'll get in trouble. You might even get suspended. But how would you feel if that happened to Tee; after everything? And if you want to be friends with us again, you know what you have to do."

Jenny thought for a moment, frowning; she didn't want to tell, but she could tell there was no other way out. And she had gone too far. Way, way too far.

"All right," she said. "I'll do it." And without saying anymore, she turned round and walked off towards the head's office; never looking back.


	41. Jody's Story

**This chapter has yet more talking in it... I hope it's not too boring, but it is important to read, as some big secrets about Jody are revealed. There's more action coming up in the next few chapters, though, I promise!**

* * *

"What are you doing back here?" May-Li demanded as Tyler walked through the door of Ashdene Ridge. "You're meant to be at school."

"I know," said Tyler. "I just need to speak to Jody; look, I can't explain, but it's really important. It's lunch time anyway; and I won't take long."

"Fine," May-Li said after thinking for a moment. "But no more than ten minutes, okay? I've had enough complaints from the school this week, with all the trouble with Tee."

"Thanks!" Tyler kicked off his shoes and ran upstairs, before May-Li could change her mind.

As Jody heard the of her room open, she sat up straight, a defensive look on her face. Seeing it was Tyler, she relaxed slightly.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I just wanted to see how you were," Tyler said. "You've been acting weird for ages. And, look, I'm sorry, but Bailey told me everything."

Jody looked away, not saying anything.

"Look, Jody, what's the matter?" Tyler asked. "I know you, okay? And there's something really wrong with you."

"I'm fine, okay?" Jody said. "Really."

"Yeah? Well, how come you lied about what happened yesterday? And why are you here, in bed, when you're clearly not at all ill?"

"Well, I couldn't tell the truth, could I?" Jody said, slowly. "And you know why? Because I was scared. I'm just a stupid little coward, okay? And there's nothing anyone can do about it."

"You're not a coward, though," Tyler argued. "You're pretty brave - for a girl."

"Sexist!" Jody couldn't help chipping in.

"See?" Tyler said. "You never hold back, usually. So why now? Did they threaten you?"

"No!" Jody said, annoyed now. "I already told Carmen; this is all down to me. And there's nothing anyone can do!"

"Something happened between you and Thomas Fletcher, though." Tyler persisted. "I saw you talking, remember? You can tell me. Look, what happened yesterday? Why don't you start with that."

Jody was about to refuse, again; go back to being defensive. Somehow, though, she found herself speaking.

"Well, I'd seen Thomas a few times before," she said. "When you saw me talking to him on Wednesday, but also before that. He came up to me on Tuesday afternoon, when I was walking home from primary school. I didn't know who he was, then, but he knew me. Or he knew where I live, anyway. He gave me this note, told me to put it in Tee's room. I should have refused from the start! But I didn't; look, I didn't know who he was, what he was like."

"Of course you didn't!" Tyler said. "Jody, none of this is your fault!"

"You don't know everything, then," said Jody. "Not if that's what you think. Anyway, yesterday, I got this email from Tee, telling me to meet her at the school, by this staircase. I thought she wanted to explain what had happened with Rosie, I guess... I should have realised there was something weird. I mean, we live in the same house. Why would she want to meet me at the school of all places? On a bank holiday? But anyway, I went. I just didn't think. Only when I got there, Thomas Fletcher was there, with his friends. And then..." she paused for a moment, wondering what to say without giving everything away.

"Go on," urged Tyler. "I won't tell anyone, whatever happened. Okay?"

"All right," Jody muttered. "Well, they... look, I can't say exactly how it was. But you have to know that I had to do what they said; I had no choice, okay? I couldn't refuse."

"What happened?" Tyler repeated.

"Well," said Jody. "They asked me for everyone's passwords on the internet. I had to tell them; I betrayed you all, but I had no choice. And then they made me pretend I was trapped. There was this tiny room, below the stairs. I don't think it was safe; I had to step over a load of rubble to get in. But then they hid. And they made me wait."

She shuddered again, remembering everything. "I had to wait for ages, Tyler. It was so dark, and I could tell it could all fall in at any moment. And... well, it reminded me of when I still lived at home. You know, when my mum and brother used to lock me in. It was horrible. But anyway, then Tee came, looking for me. I had to call out for her, like I was in trouble. And then... she went in, to find me. And - and they made me leave her."

Jody finally broke down, sobbing. "Look, Tyler, I couldn't refuse! I had to do what they said; I had to betray Tee!"

"Why, though?" Tyler asked. "What have they got, that they can use against you?"

"I can't tell you," Jody said. "You'll hate me!"

"What, after everything else? Jody, there's clearly a good reason for what you did; otherwise it's unforgivable. So why don't you just spit it out? Like I said, I won't tell anyone!"

"Fine!" snapped Jody. Then she gulped, and started talking again. "Look, you know how Thomas told the whole school about Tee's dad?"

"What does that have to do with you?" Tyler was confused.

"Well, on Tuesday evening, I was playing hide-and-seek with Harry and Mo, do you remember? Only, I got bored, so I hid behind the cupboard in Mike's office, with a book. Only, Mike came in... And he started talking on the phone. I heard everything, the whole secret. Mike only noticed Carmen, she was listening at the door."

"So you knew the secret," Tyler said. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well," Jody nibbled her lip uncomfortably, then suddenly it all came out in a rush.

"Look, it was me, okay?" she blurted out. "Tee's been accusing Bailey all the time of telling Thomas, but it was me. And that's why I've been doing everything he said. He said that if I didn't, he'd tell everyone what I did. I was terrified, and I know I'm a coward, I should have just been honest. But I wasn't; and now I don't know what to do."

"But... why? I don't understand." Tyler was baffled. "Thomas never knew there was a secret in the first place; so how could he persuade you to tell him?"

"Because of his friend," Jody said.

"Friend? What friend?"

"The one in a gang. I don't know who he is, but I've seen him before... before I went into care. He used to hang around with my brother, Kingsley. He was at our house a few times, so I knew how evil he was. But... apparently, he remembered _me. _You saw me on Wednesday, when I went up to Thomas to try to get him to leave Rosie alone. But the thing is, he told me that he was friends with that guy... and that he knew something, about my mum."

"Your mum? What does she have to do with anything?"

"Well, she's never been exactly parent of the year, has she. She'd always do what Kingsley said. And, a long time ago, before I went to care... well, for a while he used to deal drugs. And he kept his supplies at our house."

"What?" Tyler couldn't believe it. "With you there, as a kid? Anything could have happened to you! What if you'd taken them, without knowing what they were?"

"Well, this is Kingsley we're talking about," Jody reminded him, slightly irritated.

"But... did your mum know about this?" Tyler asked.

Jody's face clouded, and she nodded. "Yeah, she did. And that's the problem. Thomas threatened to go to the police, and tell them. Mum would have been arrested! I had to do something. So the moment he mentioned Mum I just lost it and said he couldn't tell. And he asked me why not. So... well, I said I had a secret, and I'd tell him if he promised to keep quiet about mum. It was the first thing that came into my head, Tyler. I just didn't think, and I've regretted it ever since."

"Jody, you have to tell the police about this," Tyler said. "If they've been threatening you... look, people like that, they never stop. They can make you do anything they want right now."

"I can't tell anyone!" Jody interrupted. "I told you what they said. Everyone will know what I did, and Mum will be arrested..."

"You can't keep quiet, though," said Tyler. "Okay, don't tell the police then. But tell Carmen; she's really worried about you. Or Johnny."

"They'll hate me, though!" cried Jody. "After everything I did..."

"No they won't," Tyler said, firmly. "They'll know you had no choice. And do you want Bailey to get the blame instead?"

"No, but... look why is this so important?"

Tyler sighed; he'd have to tell her the truth. "Look, Jody... the reason Carmen and Bailey won't report what happened to the police... it's partly because they think Thomas and Luke have some sort of hold over you. If you want them arrested, well, it's up to you. They won't go to the police otherwise; and Thomas will never leave you alone."

"But if I grass them up, they'll tell the police about my mum." Jody said, doubtfully.

"Well, you'll just have to risk that! Look, the police know what things were like for you. They know your whole family was scared of your brother. Maybe they'll leave your mum alone."

"Unlikely!" said Jody. "Look, I can't risk it. There's no way I'm betraying my mum."

"Just tell Carmen what you know, then," said Tyler. "Bailey saw what happened to; if he goes to the police, nobody will ever know that you had anything to do with it."

"I guess..." Jody said, thoughtfully. "Do you think I should speak to Carmen and Johnny, then?"

"Yes, I do," Tyler said firmly. Jody nodded glumly. She had no idea what would happen now... for all she knew, this could lead to yet more disaster. And the last thing she wanted to do was hurt anyone. But she'd just have to risk everything that might happen. After all, Tyler was right. Jody Jackson was not a coward.


	42. Coming Together

"So, how did you find it at the hospital?" Mike asked Johnny, as they drove home. "Was it as bad as you thought?"

"In some ways," Johnny said slowly, remembering how he'd felt when he'd first seen Tee. He'd expected things to look bad, but it was like every inch of her body was covered in some sort of cast or bandage, her eyes firmly shut. At first he'd found it hard to imagine how this was the same person he'd seen less than a week before; and, worse still, how Tee could ever go back to being herself. Still, at least he'd had his mum to comfort him. For once, when he needed it most, he hadn't been alone.

"It wasn't really that bad," he said. "At least some of the news was good. And I'm glad I finally got to tell Mum how I feel about everything. Maybe now things will be better between us."

"I'm sure they will," Mike said. "And, look, you're a good brother to Tee, whatever you think. She's lucky to have you."

"Am I really, though?" Johnny asked. "I wasn't there for her when she needed me most... I kept everything from her... the worst thing is that now I am here, I can't do anything. I can't speak to Tee, can't help her... I just feel so useless."

Mike sighed. "Look, Johnny, I know you feel bad," he said. "Anyone would, in your situation. But you've done plenty for Tee already, even if you don't realise it. Going to visit her in hospital, talking things over with your mum, trying to make things right... I'd say you've done more than enough."

"Maybe," Johnny said, feeling slightly better. "I just wish I knew exactly what happened to Tee, yesterday."

Mike nodded sympathetically, pulling into the car park of Ashdene Ridge and stopping the car as they arrived home.

* * *

"Honestly, I can't _believe _everything that's happened today," Cally said to Carmen, as they got off the bus. "See you tomorrow, anyway."

"Loads has happened, true, but how much we've actually done I don't know," Carmen muttered to Kazima, as they started walking home. "I mean, we still have no idea what to do about Thomas. And Luke."

"Still, at least Jenny's owned up," Kazima pointed out. "Tee's partly out of trouble now, and hopefully with the film on her tablet and what Rosie said, we can prove it wasn't her who threw the paint."

"We can't prove who did, though, can we?" said Carmen. "Or any of the other things they did. That's up to Jody. I hope Tyler's managed to talk to her, find out what's wrong."

"Something's got to happen soon, though, that's for sure," Kazima said. "Anyway, there's Bailey. Let's see what he thinks."

* * *

"So, we're agreed right?" Tyler said to Jody. "You'll speak to Johnny."

"I don't know if I can..." Jody faltered.

"You can," Tyler said, firmly. "I know you, okay?"

Hearing the front door open and Johnny come in with Mike, he nudged Jody.

"Now's your chance!" he said. "Look, you'll feel better if you tell someone what's happened."

Jody nodded dumbly.

"Look, I'll go with you if it makes you feel better," Tyler said. "Okay?"

"Yeah..." Jody said, quietly. Then she got up suddenly. "Let's just get this over with, okay? Do it quickly."

Her heart racing, she left her room for the first time that day, heading downstairs, Tyler following behind. She was still terrified, unsure what would happen as a result of this, what the consequences would be. But nothing could be worse than what had happened to Tee; and it was time someone opened up, finally told the truth about what happened. Someone had to sort this out; and it looked like it would be Jody.

Sometimes, the one thing that made you face your fears, do more than you ever thought possible, was knowing that there was no alternative; that it absolutely had to be done. And maybe this was Jody's chance to do what she'd never managed, stand up for herself and her friends like she'd never managed to do when she was home, living with her brother. Maybe now, finally, she could prove that she wasn't a coward.

Johnny didn't see Jody immediately; he was deep in thought, head down as Jody watched him from the top of the stairs. For a moment, she was tempted to back out, walk back to her room like nothing had happened. But even as she thought about it, Tyler squeezed her arm encouragingly, and called down to Johnny.

"Can we talk to you? In private? There's something Jody wants to tell you."

* * *

"I think what we need to do is speak to Jody again," Bailey told Kazima and Carmen as they walked through the gates of Ashdene Ridge. "Maybe now she'll - "

He stopped in his tracks as the door suddenly opened, and Johnny charged out, eyes blazing.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

"Johnny," Carmen started, "We wanted to, but - "

"You should have told me!" Johnny shouted, lunging at Bailey, who dodged out of the way. "I can't believe those psychos almost killed my sister, and you just kept silent! You all knew what happened, what was going on, and you never said one word - and all the time, they could have been running away, causing more trouble, anything!"

"Johnny, wait!" Jody yelled, appearing at the door. "It wasn't like that! They were trying to help me. We were all scared, nobody knew what to do!"

"So you let Tee suffer?" Johnny demanded, turning on Jody. "All because you were all too scared to face a couple of morons?"

"We had to," Carmen protested. "Look, Johnny, these people, they're dangerous. You saw what happened to Tee! Luke's in a gang, Thomas too. None of us saw what they're capable of, that's the problem."

"And we can't go to the police," Jody said. "Because of my mum..."

"Do you think I even care?" Johnny yelled, his voice shaking. "Whoever these people are, they hurt Tee. And there's no way they're getting away with it."

"We won't let them," Carmen said. "We'll figure something out, get them arrested... somehow. Look, we'll manage somehow, we just have to find a way - "

"Where will they be now?" Johnny interrupted, turning to Kazima and Bailey.

"What?" Kazima stared at him. "Johnny, you can't go after these people. They're dangerous. You'd never beat them, not when they're all together. They threatened Tee with a knife and everything!"

"What?!" Johnny rounded on her. "When was this?"

"On Monday," she said. "You'd just left. But that shows how mad they are... they're violent. Tee might have managed to face one of them alone when they were at school, but you don't want to face them now. They'll thrash you!"

"_Tell me where they are_!" Johnny repeated. "I'll kill them, just you wait."

"I don't know anything," Kazima said. "Please, just wait!"

"Bailey?" Johnny said, turning to face them. "You know them! You'd better tell me."

"I can't!" Bailey said. "Kazima's right, they're dangerous. We'd be better waiting..."

"Bailey," Johnny said, his voice low. "If you care one bit about my sister, you **will** tell me where to find Thomas and Luke!"

"I don't believe this!" Johnny shouted after a couple of seconds. "Call yourselves friends, none of you care one bit about Tee! Well, I'm going to find them, I don't care what you say. Or how long I have to search!"

And with that, he marched to the gate, flinging it open as the others stared at him, speechless.

"Johnny, wait!" Bailey shouted suddenly.

"No way!" Johnny yelled, carrying on walking. "There's nothing you can do to stop me."

"It's not that," Bailey said, quietly. "I know where they'll be, okay? There's this place where Luke's gang always hang out. And..." he paused. "I still don't think this is a good idea, but... well, there's no way you're risking your life while I do nothing. If you're doing this, then I'm going with you."


	43. Temper

"Come on, then!" Johnny shouted. "Come with me if you want, but let's get going."

Bailey shook his head. "Not today, yeah?" he said. "You're tired out; we all are. Let's wait for tomorrow; they'll still be there, and we'll have more time and energy to think things through."

Johnny wasn't happy; his temper was still boiling and all he wanted was to make them pay for what they'd done to Tee. But Bailey had a point, so he nodded reluctantly, following Carmen, Kazima and Jody back into the house.

"I still don't think this is a good idea," said Kazima. "I've had experience with people like that; they're dangerous. You don't know what they could do to you."

"Do you really think I care?" Johnny said. "Anyway, what else can we do? We can't go to the police or anything; this is something we have to sort out by ourselves."

* * *

**Saturday**

"So, where will we find them?" Johnny asked Bailey; it was late morning the next day, and the two of them, along with Kazima, were setting out to find Thomas and Luke. Kazima still wasn't happy about it, but she knew she was much more street-wise than either of them; and whatever might happen, the best way of protecting Johnny and Bailey was to go with them.

"How do you know where Luke and Thomas hang out, anyway?" she asked Bailey now, suspiciously.

"I don't," he said, grimly. "But, that alleyway near the school... the shortcut, where they threatened Tee that time..." he paused, looking uncomfortable. "I just thought they might be there."

Johnny stared ahead, his face set, dangerously. If he'd been angry before, he was boiling now.

"Do you think he'll be all right?" Kazima said, quietly. "You know what he's like. And with him in this mood... well, what if something bad happens to him? Or he does something stupid? He could get out of control..."

"Well, they deserve what they get, in my opinion," Bailey said. "Johnny can kill the two of them for all I care."

Kazima frowned, not replying. With both boys like this, working together for once, she just hoped things wouldn't get out of hand. And Johnny and Bailey were both prone to overestimating themselves; what if they couldn't beat Luke and Thomas? She just hoped she could prevent anything too bad from happening, from either side.

Her stomach churned as they got nearer to the shortcut; she didn't know whether she could handle this, what would happen. Maybe if they'd just called the police it would have been better for everyone; she wished this wasn't happening. But there was nothing she could do.

Noticing Johnny and Bailey slowing down, she did the same, following them round behind the wall that separated the alleyway from the rest of the street. There, they could see what was happening inside without being seen.

Bailey motioned the others to be quiet, craning his neck to see what was happening. After a second, he drew back suddenly, his eyes wide.

"They're there!" he breathed. "I wasn't sure they would be; it was just a guess, but..."

"Sshhh!" Johnny whispered. "What are they saying?"

Kazima looked round again, daring to stand closer so she could see what was going on. Sure enough, there were Luke, Thomas, Sean and two other older guys she didn't know. Thomas was leaning against the wall, looking over at Luke, who stood near the other entrance, two other boys standing behind him like body-guards. They were frowning; Kazima couldn't tell whether they were angry or worried. As they started speaking, Kazima crept even closer, just in front of the entrance, so she could hear them.

"That Matt had better not grass us up," Luke was saying. "He's too weak-minded for my liking; who knows what he'll do? And if he gets us into trouble, I'm blaming you, Thomas."

"Me?" Thomas demanded. "You're the one who pushed Tee! Why'd you even do that, idiot? She had nothing on me, and now thanks to you we could all get arrested!"

"Well, you're the one who signed up for this," Luke said. "This is what we do; and if you're not happy with it, then maybe you should go back to playschool with your wimpy friend Matt. If you're going to be one of us, you have to be prepared for the consequences."

"I know, but... you - _we_ \- could have killed her!" Thomas muttered. "And for what? She was getting above herself, sure, but is that a reason to kill someone?"

Luke stepped forward suddenly, a dangerous edge to him. Thomas stepped back, alarmed.

"I don't like what you're implying," he said. "Look, Fletcher, you're either with us or against us. And you've been saying a lot of things I don't like recently. If you hadn't been so quick to give in to Tee Taylor, maybe I wouldn't have had to do what I did. Either way, none of this is my fault. She was asking for it anyway, and what I did, it was all because of you. So _don't _go blaming me."

"I'm not." Thomas said, hastily. "It wasn't my fault neither, though, all right? Look, if you ask me, Tee was asking for trouble. She brought this all on herself. She's the one to blame, not you - and definitely not me."

"Johnny, wait!" Kazima said, sharply, instinctively realising what he was about to do. But Thomas had pushed his buttons, and there was no stopping him now; swiftly, suddenly, Johnny charged past Kazima.

Thomas and Luke barely had time to register what was happening, or look up in surprise; Johnny was already on top of them, punching Thomas swiftly in the face; sending him reeling backwards against the wall, clutching his face.

"Never, ever say _anything _like that again!" Johnny roared. He prepared to hit him again, but Luke grabbed him from behind.

Johnny struggled for a second before turning round slowly, his face turning from anger to worry as he saw the rest of Luke's gang standing in front of him, blocking his path; and Luke, right in front, grabbing his arm, a menacing look on his face.

"There's no way out now," he said, dangerously.


	44. Update

**So, I just wanted to apologise for not updating for months. The thing is, I'm just not that into fanfiction anymore. And I really didn't like the new series of The Dumping Ground. So I guess I've just gone onto other stuff. I've been writing my own stories more this year, and I've also been really busy with exams.**

** But since this story is almost finished, I thought I might as well finish it off. So, if anyone is still even following this story, I'll be uploading the last chapter very soon. For now, I thought I'd upload an extract of what I've written of it so far.**

* * *

"Do you really think I'm scared of you?" Johnny tried to sound like he wasn't bothered at all, but he could feel his voice wavering - and, by the smirk between Thomas and Luke, he knew they'd heard the fear in his voice too.

"I'm joining the army soon," he went on; he knew he was babbling, probably doing the worst thing possible, but his voice seemed to be speaking of his own accord. "So if you think weedy idiots like you lot can stop me, well, then you're even dumber than I thought. And that's saying something."

Behind the wall, Bailey groaned silently. Why did Johnny have to say that? If anything, that would make Luke and Thomas even more dangerous. That was Johnny's problem - he never knew when to shut up. It was one of the many reasons why Bailey always made fun of him, but now... well, it could really get Johnny into trouble. Catching Kazima's eye, he could tell that she was thinking the same thing. And if anyone knew what they were up against, it was her - after all, having lived on the streets, she had plenty of experience with people like Luke.

"Did you hear that?" Luke was saying, nudging Thomas. "He thinks we're idiots. Well, you know what I think? I think that there's only one stupid person out here, and we're looking right at him. Because you know what, Johnny? Now you're going to pay."

He took a step closer to Johnny, followed by the rest of his gang, who always seemed to do exactly what he did. Johnny, for his part, stood his ground, glaring unwaveringly.

Bailey nudged Kazima sharply. "We have to do something!" he whispered. "Look, Johnny might be an idiot, but he's one of us. We can't just leave him!"

Kazima nodded, frowning. "Okay," she hissed. "But we use the scare tactic, okay? Do what I say." She motioned Bailey to move to the other side of the tunnel entrance; from either side, they watched as Luke stepped closer to Johnny, still taunting him. Johnny's face was white, but his teeth were gritted firmly together, determined as ever. Kazima motioned for Bailey to wait as Luke spoke.

"Y'know, I'm really glad you're here, Johnny," he was saying, his voice fake sincere. "After all, you and your whole orphanage family - if you can call it a family - have done so much for us. And we really wanted a chance to thank you personally. Now, we can finally give you the... _reward_ you deserve."


End file.
